GRAND RAPIDS – Talented young players are a great to have, but at single-elimination tournament time it’s nice to have some senior leadership to guide the way through dangerous waters.

Ty’Veonna Davis definitely played that role for the Muskegon Big Reds on Wednesday night.

Davis tossed in 21 points to lead Muskegon to an impressive 49-37 victory over a good Grand Haven team in the Division 1 district semifinals at Kenowa Hills High School.

Perhaps Davis’ biggest moments were in the fourth quarter, when Grand Haven had the momentum and was attempting to make a comeback.

With two minutes left, the Big Reds got two big defensive stops and Davis broke away for two key layups to give Muskegon some breathing room.

“It felt great,’ said Davis about the clutch layups. “It brought a lot of energy to the gym. I knew when I got the first one, I had to get a second one to get the crowd hyped and on its feet.”

Davis has been the guiding force all season for a talented but very young Muskegon squad that includes nine freshmen and sophomores.

“We relied on her,” said Loudermill about his senior, who’s playing point guard due to an injury to freshman Camiyah Bonner. “She gave her teammates a talk on Monday about being prepared and how it was going to be in terms of intensity. We can really make some noise with her.”

The victory put Muskegon, now 16-7, in Friday’s district championship game against Kenowa Hills, which stunned O-K Green conference champion Reeths-Puffer in Wednesday’s other semifinal.

“We’ll watch game film tomorrow and be together as a team,” Loudermill said. “They understand now the importance of what we talked about on Monday.”

Loudermill said it’s time for some of the promising underclassmen on the team to take the next step as the biggest games approach.

“At this point, in game 23, we’re no longer freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “We’re sophomores and juniors and future college players. We’ve got to be able to make better choices and take care of the basketball.”

The game started out tight with Muskegon holding a 13-10 advantage after one quarter.

Davis had six first quarter points while Heidi Berkey and Emersen Berndt each had four for Grand Haven.

A 9-4 second quarter advantage gave the Big Reds a 22-14 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, Muskegon outscored Grand Haven 18-7 to take a 40-21 lead headed into the final eight minutes.

Bre’Asia Gamble-Jones led Muskegon with seven points in the third.

Davis led Muskegon with four points in the fourth as the Big Reds held on for the win, despite being outscored 16-9.

Mariah Sain totaled 13 points for the Big Reds while Gamble-Jones had 10.

Grand Haven was led by Gillian Sorrelle with 13 points and Berndt with 11.

The Buccaneers finished the season with a 13-9 record.