Davis is a 5-8 point guard who had the winning basket in the state championship game
EAST LANSING -- Cierra Rice -- a freshman everywhere at Grosse Pointe South except on the basketball court -- scored on a backdoor cut to tie the game with 16 seconds left and was headed to the free-throw line to put South ahead.
The little team that couldn't was indeed about to do it.
South, which had never done anything in the state tournament, was on the verge of winning the Class A state championship Saturday against No. 1-ranked Grand Haven.
In the final time-out of the season, Grand Haven coach Katie Kowalczyk-Fulmer told her players Rice was going to make the free throw and set up a play for point guard Shar' Rae Davis.
"We were going to run a one-four low for Shar' Rae, she does a very good job at getting to the rim," she said. "I told her if they pick her up, get it to Abby and keep it high."
Davis heard everything but the last sentence.
Yes, Abby Cole is 6-feet-5, but the only way the ball was leaving Davis' hands was by court order or on a shot attempt.
"Anytime in that situation, my goal is to get to the rim," she said. "Either they're going to foul me or I'm going to make it."
In other words, Davis' two options were she was going to shoot or she was going to shoot.
"Yep," she said, laughing. "Yep. For the most part."
But what about Cole, the 6-5 star who had scored 18 points?
"I didn't even see ... were you down there, Abby?" Davis asked. "I didn't even see the rest of my team."
Cole lined up on the left block, opposite the side Davis was coming down the floor on.
"I was saying: 'Just go,' " Cole said waving her hand toward Davis. "I was on the opposite block and I was ready to rebound if she had missed, but we trust Shar' Rae and she does what she does."
Davis streaked toward the basket, twisted her body and laid the ball off the glass and through the bucket with 9 seconds left.
Then she ran down the court and watched as Rice's last shot never got to the basket -- if she was fouled, she traveled first so please let's not have any conspiracy theories -- and the buzzer sounded.
But instead of acting like she had just won the state championship, Davis stood there and waited ... for overtime.
"Actually, when I made the basket I thought it was tied," she said. "I was waiting for something to happen. Then I saw Abby jumping and everybody run at me. I still didn't believe it. I had to look at the score."
The score had Grand Haven winning, 54-53, and Davis wound up with 19 points in the biggest game of her life.
No one would have guessed that because for the first three quarters Davis struggled as South built an 18-point lead.
"Early on she was kind of forcing it and not getting her teammates involved," said Kowalczyk-Fulmer. "We weren't running our offense and she wasn't getting it done on defense, either."
But in the final 8 minutes of her high school career she scored 10 points, including the final two on the biggest possession in school history when there was only one choice.
"I do pass a lot, my teammates know that," Davis insisted. "But this is one time I wasn't going to pass it."
http://www.freep.com/article/20120318/HSS1201/203180641/Mick-McCabe-Cierra-Rice-had-only-1-option