Hamady Holds On in Semifinal Return
March 19, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – For the first time in what seemed like a long time, Flint Hamady coach Keith Smith brought a group of players to the Breslin Center on Thursday who had never played in an MHSAA Semifinal.
But this season’s Hawks had heard from past standouts who contributed to the team’s back-to-back Class C championships in 2009 in 2010. And the advice they received boiled down to a few clear points:
This is what to expect at Michigan State. This is how to play when the spotlight is brightest. Make sure to box out. And most importantly, listen and do whatever Coach Smith tells you, no matter how excitable he might be in the huddle.
He said Thursday to calm down. He told his players to be patient, even as Ypsilanti Arbor Prep was cutting a 16-point lead to two. Smith knew that his team, composed, would be just fine.
And he was right. The No. 5 Hawks did hold off No. 3 Arbor Prep, 50-46, and will play Saturday for their fourth MHSAA title.
"I love it. It shows me he wants it as well as we do," Hamady senior center Aaliah Hill said her coach's energy. "Everything he does with his composure and his reaction, we're with it too.
"He knows what it takes to get here, and we're just going to keep on listening to him and trusting him."
Hamady (26-1) will face Calumet (23-2) in the Final at 4 p.m. Calumet was unranked at the start of the postseason and will make its first championship game appearance.
But as noted, this also will be the first championship game for a talented Hamady group that fell in its Regional last season and the Quarterfinals in 2013.
On Thursday, the Hawks came out aggressively in pursuit of returning to the Final.
They led by 10 two minutes into the second quarter and pushed the advantage to 16 points with two minutes to play in the second quarter.
But with the game rolling so smoothly, Hamady began to rush – and Arbor Prep went on a 16-3 run, creating havoc with its defensive press and taking advantage of six Hawks turnovers over an eight-minute period.
“That pressure is something different. I never thought I could see the day when someone would bring the same type of heat we bring,” Smith said. “We lost our composure a little bit.”
Which is what Arbor Prep coach Rod Wells said put his team down by so much during the first half. The Gators (22-4), in their fourth year with a program, won Regional titles this season and last and played ranked teams from Class A and B this winter – but didn’t seem to find their groove until the third quarter.
“We didn’t play with a lot of intensity in the first half, got beat on the offensive boards, and just didn’t move our feet very well,” Wells said. “We just kinda got caught up in the moment in the first half, just didn’t have the energy for whatever reason. By the time we made adjustments and got energized, we used a lot of energy to come back.”
As Arbor Prep’s energy ran low, Hamady’s rhythm returned. The Hawks played the Gators just about even over the final seven minutes – good enough to hold on for the four-point win.
Hill led three on her team in double-digit scoring with 16 points to go with 13 rebounds. Sophomore guard Krystal Rice added 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Terry had 14 points.
Junior guard Nastassja Chambers scored 14 points to lead Arbor Prep. Senior guard Payton Sims added eight points and four rebounds.
Hamady’s last two teams did break 20 wins – with 22 in 2012-13 and 23 last season – despite not reaching the final weekend either year. This team raised its level this winter even without senior guard Raasheedah Harris, the team’s third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder who was injured midseason.
The Hawks suffered their lone loss on the court, to Class B semifinalist Detroit Country Day, soon after Harris was hurt. But “that’s when we woke up,” Smith said.
“This is something the girls can go on and take on the rest of their lives,” he added. “When they get a chance to play at a place like the Breslin Center, and the seniors hear from girls who come back from our championship teams, they hear their experiences and they want the experience as well.
“And now they have it.”
Click for the full box score and video of the press conference.
PHOTO: (Top) Flint Hamady's Aaliah Hill pulls down a rebound during Thursday's Class C Semifinal. (Middle) Arbor Prep's Rohzane Wells brings the ball upcourt.
Renaissance, Davis Show Earn Encore Performance
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
April 7, 2021
EAST LANSING – For those who may have had something else going on Wednesday afternoon, don’t worry, there will be one more chance to catch the “Kailee Davis Show.”
The Detroit Renaissance senior put her talents on display at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, scoring seven points in a span of 21 seconds late in the game to help her team defeat Wayne Memorial,75-72, in a Division 1 Semifinal.
“It was just about not giving up,” said Davis, who finished with a game-high 33 points in her team’s victory. “I believe in my teammates, and they believe in me. Once they told me to go, I just wanted to win this for them.”
With her team trailing 69-64 with just over two minutes to play, Davis calmly hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two points. She then picked up a steal and converted a layup to tie the game at 69-69. Davis topped it off with another steal of the ensuing in-bounds pass and was fouled, converting a pair of free throws to give her team its first lead since early in the third period.
“(Kailee) challenged me on something, when I said ‘She hasn’t been getting to that steal like she did last year,’” Renaissance head coach Shane Lawal said. “I felt like she stepped up today. She told me to shut up. She went out and got two or three of those at the end of the game. That’s all I ever want to do, is challenge my kids, to be the best that they can be.”
Davis finished with 19 points in the fourth quarter alone. She scored 10 of her team’s 12 points during an early stretch of the fourth which cut Wayne Memorial’s 11-point lead down to three. The Zebras (17-3) would stretch the lead back to seven points before Davis and her teammates made the late push to earn a spot in Friday’s Division 1 championship game.
“(Davis) is an absolutely amazing player,” Wayne Memorial head coach Jarvis Mitchell said. “She absolutely willed them to win. She made some tough shots. We tried to make her work as much as possible, but at the end of the day, when a kid is resilient and they want to win … it wasn’t that my kids didn’t want to win, I just think she wanted to win a little bit more.”
Davis’s performance overshadowed what was a tremendous game by Wayne Memorial seniors Alanna Micheaux and LaChelle Austin. Micheaux, who will be playing basketball for the University of Minnesota next year, finished with 29 points and 17 rebounds. Austin had 25 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Zebras. They combined for 29 points in the second and third quarters, when their team turned a 13-point deficit into a nine-point lead.
“Alanna Micheaux, I’m a huge fan of hers,” Lawal said after the game. “Her ceiling is only (going) up. And Austin is going to have a great career in the MAC (at Eastern Michigan). Shout out to those two great seniors.”
Renaissance got off to a hot start against the Zebras. The Phoenix opened the game by scoring nine of the first 12 points, fueled by a corner 3-pointer and steal and drive to the basket by senior Mikyah Finley. The Phoenix finished the quarter on a 10-0 run, thanks to three 3-pointers, two by Finley and one by Davis, in the final two minutes to take a 21-8 lead.
Finley finished the game with 18 points. Senior Shannon Wheeler added 10 points for Renaissance (13-4).
“They played an absolutely amazing game,” Mitchell said of the Phoenix. “They have some absolutely tough kids. They deserved to win. It’s hard to stop a team with resilience. Renaissance never gave in to emotion. They just continued to go fight. And when we thought we had them, they just kept plugging and plugging. And that was the basketball game.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Renaissance's Kailee Davis launches a shot while leading her team to a Division 1 Semifinal win Wednesday. (Middle) Wayne Memorial's LaChelle Austin gets to the basket. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)