Young Yellowjackets Advance in Class B
March 20, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – Frank Orlando considered the question for a few seconds Friday and mentioned his 2003 Detroit Country Day team – and the three players next to him, who were toddlers then, all started to giggle.
“They say I’m old as dirt,” Orlando said, and then referred to sophomore Destiny Pitts. “And she’s right, too.”
The question: Is this the youngest team Orlando has coached in 34 seasons? With five freshmen, three sophomores and only two seniors, the answer is yes, younger than the junior-dominated squad that won Class B in 2003.
But on Saturday, it also can join his best.
A near-perfect shooting performance in the first half of Friday’s Class B Semifinal helped Country Day break away and earn a championship opportunity with a 69-39 win over No. 2 Goodrich, the highest-ranked team left in the field.
“We came here as a team together, for one mission only, to win today,” Country Day freshman Kaela Webb said. “Besides the bright lights and the stage that we were playing on, we had to stick together. And we were stressing that in the locker room when we first got here too.”
Country Day (21-4) will play in its 15th MHSAA Final, seeking its 11th title but first since 2009, when it faces Haslett in the day’s last game at 6 p.m.
The Yellowjackets played like a veteran team against Goodrich (25-2), the back-to-back champion in 2012 and 2013.
Yes, Orlando said this is his youngest team. But he said it's also one of the best defensively that he’s coached.
The Yellowjackets were giving up 34 points per game heading into Friday. They allowed junior guard Alexis Sevillian 18 points and senior guard and Miss Basketball Award winner Tania Davis 12. But they held the Martians to 30 percent shooting total and outrebounded them 40-25.
“The maturity I’ve seen in this team is one of the best improvements I’ve seen in my tenure at Country Day,” Orlando said. “They’ve come from 14-year-olds who haven’t played to playing at a level of expertise. I’m so proud of them and their maturity that’s now taken place. I guess you would say it’s a nice time for it.”
Orlando went on to explain that even when teams aren’t scoring, they can compete with good defense. But the Yellowjackets didn’t face that scenario Friday.
They made 50 percent of their shots during the first half, including all six 3-point tries, and finished shooting 44 percent for the game and 50 percent from beyond the arc.
Country Day used a 13-3 run to start the second quarter and build a 15-point lead, and an 11-4 run over the final three minutes of the third quarter to regain a comfortable advantage after Goodrich had pulled within six points at 35-29.
“We joked at halftime that if they don’t miss any tonight, there’s nothing we can do. … For me, it was comforting knowing they could not play this well again in the second half,” Goodrich coach Jason Gray said. “(But) we got tired. They’ve got a lot of athletes, and we just couldn’t put together that run we needed in the second half. “
Pitts finished with 28 points, including six 3-pointers, and grabbed 10 rebounds. Senior Jordan Wright added 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Webb had 10 points, three assists and three steals.
Davis finished as a four-year starter for Goodrich and was the team’s leading scorer in its 2013 Class B Final win. She’ll continue her career next season at the University of Iowa.
“Coming into freshman year, I never thought I’d be here at Breslin three times, never thought I’d win Class B Player of the Year (from The Associated Press) two years in a row, never though I’d be Miss Basketball,” Davis said. “It’s been unbelievable. It’s been unthinkable. It’s been my dream, coming up, pretty much.”
Click for the full box score and video from the press conference.
PHOTOS: (Top) Jordan Wright (11) and Arika Tolbert (10) block the shot of Goodrich’s Alexis Sevillian during Friday’s Semifinal. (Middle) Country Day’s Destiny Pitts works to drive around Goodrich’s Ciya Hawkins.
Hovey's Elite Talent on Track Helping Hart Hoops Continue to Fly High
By
Tom Kendra
Special for MHSAA.com
January 10, 2025
HART – Addi Hovey has certainly shown she's built for speed – not only in track & field, but on the basketball court as well.
Hovey won three individual events at last year’s Lower Peninsula Division 3 Girls & Field Track Finals (leading the Hart girls to their third-consecutive team championship), and now the senior is using her unique blend of speed, jumping ability and aggressiveness to wreak havoc on the hardwood.
“All of us have grown up playing that style of basketball, just running all the time,” explained Hovey, who is the reigning LPD3 champion in the 100 meters, 200 meters and high jump.
“We are a short team, but we make up for it with speed. That’s our game.”
Hart, which has averaged better than 19 wins per season over the past three years, improved to 7-1 on Tuesday with a 62-42 win over Ravenna, led by a game-high 23 points from Hovey.
“We have great basketball players, but more than that, we have great athletes who can run and trap,” said seventh-year Hart coach Travis Rosema. “Addi is a huge part of that. We are undersized, so sometimes I need her to play post, and she is willing to do that.”
Hovey, a 5-foot-10 left-handed guard/forward, first made her mark on the state stage two years ago as a sophomore when the Pirates took on No. 1-ranked and heavily-favored Buchanan in a Division 3 Quarterfinal game.
Rosema needed someone to guard Buchanan’s 6-4 senior center Faith Carson, who now plays for Ohio State. Hovey, then a 5-8 sophomore, drew the assignment and battled Carson all night, making her work for all of her 22 points in Hart’s upset win (and Hovey also knocked down four free throws over the final 30 seconds).
Last week, she was assigned to a smaller player, Mason County Central guard Mallory Miller, and held her to 10 points – eight points below her average.
On Tuesday, Hovey was back to playing all over the court: trapping, cutting off dribblers with her speed and getting into passing lanes with her long arms.
It is that incredible athleticism which led Hovey, who already holds Hart school records in the 100 (12.27), 200 (25.51), high jump (5-11) and 400 relay (50.13), to receive offers from a variety of schools for both basketball and track. In August, she announced she would join her older sister Jayd at Indiana Wesleyan, an NAIA school in Marion, Ind., and play both sports.
“My family is very important to me, and basketball is something that brings us all together,” said Hovey, 17, the daughter of Jeff and Staci Hovey. “I felt like God was calling me to play at IW with my sister.”
Indiana Wesleyan is currently 16-0 and ranked No. 2 nationally in NAIA. Jayd, 21, is out for the season with an ACL tear after missing most of her senior basketball season at Hart with a torn ACL in her other knee.
Parker, 19, the only boy in the four-child family, is a 6-5 starting forward at Hope College, where he is having a strong season at nine points and seven rebounds per game.
The final piece of the Hovey puzzle is Mia, a 12-year-old seventh grader at Hart who serves as the varsity team’s manager – and will be a player to watch in the very near future.
Hart finished 17-6 last year and lost to Ludington in Districts after moving to Division 2. The Pirates have all five starters back from that team and are back in Division 3, sparking hope for another long tournament run.
The Pirates looked sharp in the first half Tuesday, when all five starters and several key reserves were involved in the scoring.
“I tell the girls all the time that we are a team of 10,” said Rosema. “I want to rotate through and wear the other team down, continue to press and keep that pressure on all game.”
Hovey is the tallest Hart starter at 5-10, followed by senior Kelsey Copenhaver (5-9), who averages seven points and six rebounds per game. The other senior in the starting lineup is guard Breslyn Porter, who averages five points and four rebounds.
The Pirates’ other starters are sophomores. Breslyn’s younger sister, point guard Rilynn Porter, who is off to a great start with nine points and 5.5 assists per game. Reese Smith does a little bit of everything for the team, contributing 8.7 points, 2.8 steals, 2.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds.
But when push comes to shove, just like in the high jump, Hovey is the one best-suited to elevate her game.
Ravenna, which is having a strong year and dropped to 6-2 with the loss, outscored Hart in the third quarter to get within 10 points. That led to Hovey taking over at the start of the fourth quarter, scoring 10 consecutive points off a variety of steals and deflections to put the game away.
Last year, Hovey became the third player in Hart girls basketball history to surpass 1,000 career points. Ironically, all three of those players – Amy Pickard Contreras, Landyn Lorenz and Hovey – are left-handed.
Hovey leads the Pirates in most statistical categories, averaging 16.3 points, nine rebounds, six steals, three assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game.
The one question which Hovey had difficulty answering was to name the individual highlight of her Hart basketball career.
After a pause, she instead began talking about some of Hart’s many team breakthroughs over the past three seasons – such as finally breaking through and defeating Kent City in Regionals two years ago, which was followed up by the monumental upset of Buchanan that gave the Pirates their first-ever berth in the Semifinals at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center.
“Basketball is my first love because it’s a team sport,” said Hovey, who is considering a career in teaching and coaching. “I don’t care about stats. I just want to do everything I can to help my team win.”
Tom Kendra worked 23 years at The Muskegon Chronicle, including five as assistant sports editor and the final six as sports editor through 2011. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Muskegon, Oceana, Mason, Lake, Oceola, Mecosta and Newaygo counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Hart’s Addi Hovey (24) brings the ball upcourt during a game. (Middle) Hovey competes in the high jump during the spring. (Photos courtesy of the Local Sports Journal.)