Metro area — “We connect real well. It’s ‘that sister’ thing.”
Lauren Henderson, junior forward at Riverview Gabriel Richard, describes her relationship with her sister, sophomore guard Ashley.
Another Lauren – Lauren Robak, senior guard at Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes – could very well say the same thing about how she gets along with her sister, sophomore guard Lexie.
The siblings, who form the backbone of their respective basketball squads, are expected to be in the thick of the hunt for a Catholic League championship when playoffs begin Feb. 10 and culminate with the championship game Feb. 20.
The Lakers will be seeking their third straight C-D title, while the Pioneers have been eliminated in the last three tournaments.
Clare Girard, coach of track and cross country at Richard since 1976 and athletic director for the past 12 years, says the Hendersons are “a lot of fun to watch. They play like they’ve been playing from the crib.”
Actually, outside of a summer travel team five years ago, the first time the Hendersons played together on the same team was last year when Ashley, 15, made the varsity as a freshman.
“We know where the other one is without looking,” says Lauren, 16.
Coach Bill Borg opines, “That’s the result of a lot of driveway basketball.”
Borg, in his fifth season at Richard, calls 6-foot Lauren “a complete athlete, a leader . . . the best person I’ve ever coached.”
Her work ethic is “unbelievable,” Borg says. “She’s the first one in the gym and the last to leave.”
Versatile as point guard or in the center, Lauren is averaging 21 points and 14 rebounds a game. Twice this season, she poured in a school record 32 points in a game.
Ashley, at 5-foot-10, is in a “learning process,” says Borg, but complements Lauren with 14 points and 7 rebounds a game, and a 45 percent success rate from the three-point line. “She’s ultra-aggressive, just starting to believe she can play and excel.”
Girard compares the Hendersons to Carissa and Callie Gizicki, who led the Pioneers to three consecutive state district trophies in 1997-98-99. Richard has won the district crown the last two years. “We’re hoping Lauren and Ashley can help get us the third one.”
Lauren was on the Pioneers’ first state regional championship team in 2009 before being eliminated in the quarterfinals. She’ll have her sister at her side to go beyond.
Lauren and Lexie Robak have gone beyond, to the mountain top, winning the state Class D championship a year ago, the first basketball crown for Our Lady of the Lakes to go with 15 other state titles in five sports the school has collected in its history.
In the two biggest games of her career, the 5-foot-10 Lauren was hailed as one of the best players on the court in the state tourney. She netted 30 points and snared eight rebounds in the semifinal victory and 19 points and nine rebounds in the title game, a 48-43 victory over Adrian Lenawee Christian.
“She always plays her best when it’s crunch time,” says the person who knows her best of all, her coach – and father – Steve Robak. “She wants the ball. She’s a real luxury for us.”
In a recent key league game against arch-rival Cardinal Mooney, Lauren took over the game for the Lakers with a sterling season-high 31-point performance and 17 rebounds to guarantee the victory. She did this in spite of a knee-to-knee collision with an opposing player that sidelined her for half of a quarter.
Lauren, 18, is resilient. Two summers ago, she “rolled her ankle,” forcing her to miss the opening of the basketball schedule. When she was cleared to play, she broke her left hand in the first game back and missed five more games.
Lauren is adventurous, too. She was a member of the Lakers’ football team as a freshman and sophomore, the first girl to do this.
“She was the back-up extra-point kicker,” her father says. “I wouldn’t let her do kickoffs with all those boys out there.”
Fifteen-year-old Lexie supports her sister’s 22 points-a-game average with 13 a game, largely built on her sharp-shooting from the three-point range. The 5-foot-8 guard intimidates opponents with her speed and quickness on offense and ball-hawking on defense.
The sisters have played together through CYO basketball in grade school. But the connection will be broken at the end of this season. Lauren will be attending Oakland University in the fall on a four-year, full-ride basketball scholarship.
“It’ll be different,” Ashley says.
For now, their attention is on two major challenges facing them and their teammates: one, repeating for the Catholic League C-D championship and, two, getting back to the top of the state Class D mountain.
They’ll do it together. It’s “that sister” thing.
