Davis Twins Putting Finishing Touches on Doubly Sensational West Bloomfield Legacy

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

January 25, 2024

Indya and Summer Davis are like most twins in that it often is hard to tell their differences.

Greater DetroitBut each definitely is her own person, especially off of the court. 

Indya likes fish and lasagna, while Summer doesn’t. 

Summer’s favorite color is blue, while Indya prefers pink. 

Indya’s favorite music artist is Brent Faivaz, while Summer likes Kanye West. 

There are also some subtle differences on the basketball court too as they proceed through their senior year at West Bloomfield.

While both are 5-foot-9, Indya spends more of her time in the paint dominating the boards and getting points in the post, while Summer is sharp shooting from the outside and helps facilitate the offense. 

“I’m more on the arc than she is,” Summer Davis said. “She is more like an inside player, but she can (play the perimeter) too. With most of the positions how they are (on the team), she is more on the inside.”

However, just like they complement each other off the court, they have brilliantly done the same for the past three seasons in taking the West Bloomfield girls basketball program to new heights.

As sophomores, the duo was the centerpiece of a West Bloomfield team that won the Division 1 championship, the first in program history. The twins were better last year as juniors, but couldn’t quite help lead the Lakers to a repeat with a 40-36 loss to Rockford in the championship game at Breslin Center. 

Even better and hungrier this year as seniors, the Davis twins not only form the best tandem on a team in the state, but they might end up as each other’s biggest competition for the Miss Basketball Award. 

It’s certainly hard to tell them apart on the court, and that has everything to do with their games and not solely focusing on the fact they are identical twins. 

Summer, left, and Indya Davis last week.The two might have different roles at the moment in West Bloomfield’s system, but if you asked them to reverse roles with Indya moving to the perimeter and Summer inside, they would likely thrive just as much.

“We’re definitely all-around players,” Indya Davis said. 

West Bloomfield head coach Darrin McAllister said that has been the case since he first met the twins as middle schoolers playing in the Michigan Storm AAU program. 

McAllister said the Davis twins were like sponges back then wanting to absorb as much knowledge as they could, even if McAllister wasn’t technically their coach because he was presiding over an older-aged team within the program.

“I think they were about sixth or seventh grade,” McAllister said. “After every practice, they would come up to me and say, ‘Hey can you show me this? Can you show me that?’ To be honest with you, I was tired and ready to go home, but these little kids wanted to learn. They continued to come in and bug me about little things. Some of the moves we worked on when they were in sixth and seventh grade, they’re executing right now.” 

Summer Davis said she has always had basketball as her No. 1 sport, but Indya said she did dabble a bit in tennis and gymnastics when she was younger. 

By the time they were 10 years old, they decided to focus solely on basketball, and the rest is history.
Following Friday’s game against Oxford, Summer leads the team in scoring at 17.2 points per game, assists at 4.9 a contest, and steals at 5.3 a game. 

Indya Davis is averaging just over 15 points a game to go along with 6.6 rebounds for a West Bloomfield team that is 9-0. The stats would probably be even higher, but the Lakers haven’t played in many close games this year and the twins’ minutes have been limited. West Bloomfield also gets significant contributions from senior Kendall Hendrix, another future Division I college player who has signed with Loyola Chicago.

Once their high school careers are over, the Davis twins will continue to play together at Georgia. The twins originally committed to Michigan State, but decommitted after former head coach Suzy Merchant resigned. 

While wanting to rack up stats and be 1-2 in the Miss Basketball voting, the two are also identical and aligned in their prime motivation for the rest of their final high school season. 

That would be to get back on top of the state and avenge the loss to Rockford in last year’s Final. 

“I think we’re more about the lesson we learned from it,” Indya Davis said. “How driven we are to come back stronger than we were. Look at where we made mistakes and what we can do better. Just come out harder than ever.”

As has been the case throughout their careers, two would be better than one when it comes to Division 1 championships for the Davis sisters and West Bloomfield.

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties

PHOTOS (Top) West Bloomfield’s Summer Davis (23) brings the ball up the court during last season’s Division 1 Semifinal win over Salem, with sister Indya Davis (24) leading the way. (Middle) Summer, left, and Indya Davis last week.

Paw Paw Hoops Heroes Closing in on Milestones, Rewriting School Record Book

By Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com

November 19, 2024

PAW PAW — With a basketball pedigree that goes back a generation, Paw Paw’s Grace Mitchell is one of two seniors closing in on personal and school records.

Southwest CorridorMitchell is just 164 points shy of joining the 1,000-point club.

“After my sophomore year I was over 500 (points), so I knew I could get another 500 my last two years,” said Mitchell, adding that the milestone is one of her long-time goals.

And she’s not the only one pursuing it.

Teammate AJ Rickli, a 6-foot-2 center/power forward, needs just 110 points to hit the 1,000-point mark.

Rickli stacked up her points in just over two seasons, after moving up from junior varsity near the end of her freshman year.

Scoring isn’t the only strength the players bring to the team.

Mitchell, a 5-10 guard, needs just four 3-pointers to break the school record of 156, something second-year head coach Dan Thornton said could happen when the Red Wolves open the season Dec. 3 by hosting Mattawan.

She holds the school’s season record for treys with 72 and swished eight in one game, tying another school record.

“I shoot a lot,” Mitchell said. “I’ve always like shooting the farther shots since I was little, but sophomore year I really got good at my 3-point shots.”

She is not a one-dimensional player, either, with 126 assists and 150 steals heading into her fourth varsity season.

That’s where the two seniors complement each other.

“She’s a guard; I’m a post,” Rickli said. “Where I slack, she picks up. Where she slacks, I pick up. I get her rebounds.”

Thornton said both players could reach other school milestones this season.

From left: Paw Paw coach Dan Thornton, Rickli and Mitchell headshots.“Grace potentially could be closing in on marks for steals, assists, on top of her shooting percentage from the free throw line and 3-point line,” he said, adding that Rickli could break the records for rebounds and blocks.

The coach is not surprised he has two players heading into 1,000-point territory.

“Last year we averaged about 75 points per game, and we had four different players average about double figures,” he said. “There were a lot of games where we’d get three, four and some games six people in double figures.

“It also meant everyone was scoring between 10 and 13 or 14 points per game. It made it very challenging on opposing defenses because if they focus too much on one, the other four would get very favorable matchups.”

Just two days into practice, Thornton said he plans to fill out his roster after Wednesday’s practice, laughing, “(Grace and AJ) both have a chance to make varsity.”

The Red Wolves graduated five seniors in the spring, two of them starters, from last year’s 22-3 team that advanced to a Division 2 District Final.

“It’s going to take a lot of determination and drive from everybody on the team (to move past Districts),” Rickli said. “Everybody has to contribute. Everybody has to want it the same, and we’ve got to have a team goal. And we will.”

Thornton will rely on Rickli and Mitchell for leadership, especially for those brought up from the junior varsity team.

“The two girls bring veteran leadership,” Thornton said. “They’ve both been through playing on varsity, playing in big games for a number of years.

“Both have had huge success over the years. I expect them to help nurture along younger players, guide them through our goals throughout the season.”

Rickli said the most important thing for new players is to let them know their roles.

“I’ll help the posts in their position. Grace will help the guards in their position and give them confidence,” Rickli said. “We’ll help them in practice. We’re not going to take it easy on them, because that won’t help them at all. We’ll push them in practice to get them used to varsity play.”

'Batman and Superman'

Rickli and Mitchell have been best friends and on the same hoops teams since second grade.

“We work really good together because we’re each other’s best friend, and we’ve played together forever,” Mitchell said. “We know what each other wants.

"I know how to get (the ball) in to her, and she knows when to kick it out to me. When I miss my shot, she gets my rebound and puts it back up, so it works out pretty good.”

Rickli, whose formal first name is Arin Jolyn, also plays volleyball and competes in the shot put and discus, but prefers basketball.

“Basketball just comes to me easier than the other sports,” she said. “I like the contact sports.”

Mitchell, who has committed to Alma College for golf and basketball, is keeping up her family hoops tradition.

“She comes from a very, very heavy basketball family,” said Thornton, who has been involved in coaching for 35 years and needs just 12 more varsity wins for 400. “Her father (Rick Mitchell) is legendary in basketball throughout most of Southwest Michigan. Her Uncle Gary (Mitchell) was a longtime coach (at Paw Paw), the same as her father, who is in the Paw Paw Hall of Fame.

“To have that kind of constant exposure at a young age to basketball from her family, be it her siblings or uncle or dad, probably helped Grace.”

Both girls are unselfish and supportive of their teammates, he said, adding, “They do a good job helping each other be successful. They’re very much Batman and Superman, you could say, because one of them excels in a certain area of the game and the other excels in another area. 

“The fact that the players, the team, aren’t selfish really speaks to the parenting with these players, how they’ve been raised and how they are willing to give up a good shot for themselves to give someone else a great shot.”

Pam ShebestPam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.

PHOTOS (Top) At left, Paw Paw senior AJ Rickli gets a shot up against Otsego last season; at right, senior Grace Mitchell releases a jumper. (Middle) From left: Paw Paw coach Dan Thornton, Rickli and Mitchell. (Action photos by René Rodriguez; head shots by Pam Shebest.)