West Bloomfield's Davis twins star together, but have their differences, too

You can forgive West Bloomfield’s Davis twins — Indya and Summer — if they think they are trapped inside a Progressive insurance commercial.

It's the one when someone says something, the other person disagrees and throws the red challenge flag and they go to the video.

That is what happens when their mother, Alicia Young, critiques their play and neither of the twins agrees with mom.

“I think they treat me like any other parent when it comes to not knowing much about basketball,” Young said. “So I started filming every game. Every single one of them. That’s how I learned basketball.”

Make no mistake about it, mom does know ball.

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“Oh, yes, she knows basketball,” West Bloomfield coach Darrin McCallister said. “She knows as much as anybody.”

That is not necessarily a good thing for the twins.

“There were things that I could see, which were common sense things to me,” their mother said. “They didn’t have an ear to hear anything from me, so I started saying 'I’ll show them on film.' ”

Which she has done ... time after time after time.

“I think she’s learned a lot,” Summer said. “The inside and outside of the defense. What she thinks we need to improve on. I think she’s pretty conscious about it now.”

And she isn’t one to sit quietly if she spots a problem area for them.

“At first, she didn’t know what she was talking about,” Indya said. “But now she’s learned and been around it for quite a while and now she understands. Sometimes she messes up, but she gets it.”

So do her talented daughters, who were ranked No. 1 (Indya) and No. 2 (Summer) in the state in the Free Press’ preseason player rankings.

The Davis twins committed to Michigan State as juniors, but reopened their recruitment when MSU coach Suzy Merchant resigned; the two eventually signed with Georgia. They are the state’s best twins since Pamela and Paula McGee led Flint Northern to consecutive Class A state titles in 1978 and ’79.

Sometimes it appears a coin flip is the only way to differentiate between the two when it comes to talent. They are each 5 feet 9, and each of them can handle a multitude of tasks on the court.

This season, Summer is averaging 17.7 points with 4.7 assists and 5.1 steals. Indya is averaging 15.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists.

“I think we’re better in different things, but I think we’re equally great players,” Indya said. “I’ll definitely say my post game and inside game is better. We’re both the same in shooting. We can both shoot good. She takes more shots though.”

Summer has evolved into more of a perimeter player and point guard than her sister, who is tougher in the paint.

“I usually have the ball in my hands most of the time,” Summer said. “I average a good amount of assists. I do a good job of getting the ball to everybody and still get my shot. She’s really close to the rim so she might as well put it up.”

West Bloomfield was 9-0 heading into Thursday's game against Clarkston; the Lakers are a balanced team and ranked No. 1 in Division 1 because there is a lot more to them than just the Davis twins. But the twins tend to keep an eye out for each other during games.

“I would definitely say she’s my first option, because she can get the job done,” Indya said. “But everybody’s an option. She runs the floor hard so I’m definitely looking for her.”

Indya works hard to get open so it is easy for Summer to get the ball inside to her.

“I think it just come natural to look for Indya because we’ve been playing together for so long,” Summer said. “She’s my first option.”

Their mother watched as the two developed into basketball players. They did not develop at the same pace.

“Summer is the one who naturally got things quicker, was a natural with it,” she said. “Indya was a very good student and very competitive so they were always neck and neck in terms of skill. They were very competitive with each other. They were both very good at different things all along, just because of their competitive nature.”

That competitiveness did cause some friction at times, but nothing that is unusual with twins. While they have their occasional disagreements, the two are devoted to each other.

“They’re regular siblings,” their mother said. “They have their fussin’ and fights, but they’re super close. They still spoon each other when they go to sleep — they hug.”

There are four bedroom in the Davis’ home, but two remain empty because they insist on sleeping together.

“I had to reprimand Summer one time,” their mother said. “Her punishment was to sleep in the other room. Indya was so upset about it, I had Summer go back in the bed with Indya.”

Their West Bllomfield coach led an older team in the Storm AAU organization and spotted the twins as seventh-graders.

“I knew at that time they were far beyond their years, just the fundamentals that they had,” McAllister said. “The thing that caught my eye was the hunger to be better. You don’t get kids at that age — not even at high school age — that want to be the best at their craft.”

Over the course of almost four seasons, their games have evolved; so, too, have their personalities.

They have become much more assertive on the court and are the emotional leaders of the team.

“They came in this season with the mindset to get everybody on the team to buy in to playing with a chip on your shoulder,” McAllister said. “When I heard them have that conversation with the players it floored me. You just don’t get high school players to think with that mentality.”

These twins are excellent all-around athletes — they could have been standouts in a variety of sports. And they did sample several sports when they were younger.

“We started just trying out other sports and different sports,” Indya said. “We were at the YMCA and that was like a little rec club. In the fifth grade, we started basketball and then we got really good at it and wanted to play more and get competitive at it and got into playing AAU at HYPE Athletics. We played there for a good three years and went from there to the Michigan Storm.”

Summer was immediately attracted to the game and Indya eventually came around to it.

“I think it was the automatic love for it,” said Summer. “It was always comforting to play basketball all the time. Indya just followed along. I liked basketball first.”

By the time they reached high school, the twins had begun separating themselves from others in the class of 2024.

The had an immediate impact on the West Bloomfield program as freshmen. As sophomores, they were both primetime players, leading the Lakers to the D-1 state championship.

In West Bloomfield's 2022 66-63 semifinal victory over Rockford, Indya was sensational — 24 points and eight rebounds — while Summer had 16 points and six assists.

The following day, the Lakers posted a 51-42 championship victory over Hartland with Indya scoring 17 points with 11 rebounds and Summer adding nine points and six assists.

The feeling of winning a state title was somewhat indescribable to the twins, but the overriding memory is the hard work it took to get to East Lansing.

“I definitely remember how much it took to get there and I definitely remember how special the moment was to win a state championship and get a ring,” Indya said.  “I think it was big to win it as sophomores, and we definitely contributed a lot to help carry it to the state championship.

“It was mostly for the seniors.”

The state championship lifted the basketball team’s profile around the school. Suddenly, girls basketball was cool.

“We were winning big games that year,” Summer said. “I think it brought more attention to us in the school to show that our team was really good. We were good enough to be watched.”

The Lakers were watched the next year all right — all the way to the D-1 final four again. In a 78-53 semifinal victory over Plymouth Salem, Indya scored 23 points and 12 rebounds while Summer added 20 points.

The next day, however, everything changed as Rockford knocked off West Bloomfield, 40-36 with Indya managing only eight points and Summer just four.

“I definitely remember the defeat,” Indya said. “You think about what you could have done better.”

In a word, the Lakers could have done everything better. The loss left the Lakers emotionally drained.

“I remember how I felt after losing,” Summer said. “The what ifs. What if we would have run the plays better? What if we played better defense? What if we would have played better?”

The twins could “what if” themselves to death and it wouldn’t change a thing. They were beaten by an excellent team.

“I do have what ifs, but I don’t see it as that,” Indya said. “I see it more of a lesson than a loss. It definitely was a loss, but I look at it as what can I do better? How can I get back there?”

If they need any help in accessing what they need to do this time around, they can always count on mom to be around, with a challenge flag in hand if need be.

That means it’s time to go to the video.

“That can come back on you,” Summer said, rolling her eyes. “We definitely look at film when we need to work on something, when we disagree.

“We can take her advice. You can trust that.”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: West Bloomfield's Davis twins super-talented in differing ways