D3 Basketball: Hope’s Twins Power a National Contender

Different Positions, Synergistic Strengths

Anna, a 6-foot guard, and Leah, a 6-foot-2 center, feed off one another without competing for the same opportunities.

Morehouse has coached three sets of twins in his 31-year tenure at Hope, but never a pair at different positions. Both business majors, Anna and Leah bring complementary skills to the partnership, giving the Flying Dutch more ways to connect through creative offensive sets, with Anna reading Leah’s ball-screen movement and backdoor slips.

“Leah’s great at rebounding, and she can outlet and push the ball,” Anna said in an interview with YD3. “I can just look at Leah and pass, and I know she’s going to cut. I know her tendencies, when she’s going to roll or when she’s going to pop.”

Last season, Anna garnered First Team All-MIAA, averaging a team-high 12.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.4 assists. Leah earned Second Team All-MIAA recognition, manufacturing 11.2 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds per game. Both sisters also took home national recognition with CSC Academic All-District honors.

That didn’t stop them from expanding their games this offseason. Leah worked with MakeShots founder Andy Secor to bolster her confidence from behind the arc. Meanwhile, Anna focused on strength and quickness to become more effective when posting up and attacking off the dribble.

We both have that drive to get better, and having someone there to push you every day makes a big difference. We push each other in one-on-one or shooting drills, and we always want to beat one another … I think that’s just one of the main reasons we are where we are today.

— Leah, a Lansing Catholic high school graduate, told yd3

Those individual strides should pay dividends in a talent-rich Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), where Hope finished second in the 2025-26 regular-season standings before hoisting its 19th conference tournament title.

Trine narrowly edged the Flying Dutch in the MIAA preseason poll, 63-59, tallying seven first-place votes to Hope’s three.

A Lasting D3 Basketball Bond

Morehouse has assembled a legendary NCAA coaching resume: a 758-107 record, two Division III national championships (2006 and 2022), and 18 conference titles. He also made history as the fastest men’s or women’s college basketball head coach, in any division, to reach 700 career victories.

That winning tradition has cemented DeVos Fieldhouse as a magnet for basketball fans at every level. The Flying Dutch have notched 18 NCAA Division III attendance titles, averaging 913 fans across 13 home games last season.

He credits that community, built over generations of families and student-athletes including the Richards twins, for keeping him at his alma mater despite countless Division I and II offers.

“Players won’t reach their potential on the [D3] basketball court if they don’t know how much you care about them in all other aspects of their life,” he said.

In an increasingly volatile NCAA landscape, Morehouse believes the transfer portal and NIL have encouraged a culture of short-term gratification at the expense of what makes the college experience valuable. His recruiting conversations center on what outlasts a student-athlete’s time on the court:

Do you want to go somewhere where you don’t know who will be at your 5- or 10-year reunion? Or do you want to go to a place that’s gonna be your home for the rest of your life?

That mindset is already paying dividends for both sisters. They’ve made encouraging younger teammates a personal mission, hoping to offer others the same guidance that helped pave the way for their D3 basketball journey.

For twins who have spent much of their lives growing together, that may be the most meaningful way to carry it forward.

Hope opens the 2026-27 regular season at home Friday, Nov. 6, against UW-Platteville at 5:30 p.m. ET.