Audenried girls, Imhotep boys repeat as Public League champions

Kevin Slaughter was not falling for it. He refused to move from his safe space leaning against a wall in the hallway outside his Audenried team’s dressing room Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center.

Slaughter knew what was coming — another soaking like last year, when the Rockets won their first Philadelphia Public League girls’ basketball championship. But his players were relentless Saturday. They kept at him, and eventually wore him down.

Much like the Rockets wore down Imhotep Charter, behind tenacious guard Shayla Smith, to capture their second straight Pub girls’ championship, 55-49.

Smith was the unquestionable game MVP, dropping a game-high 37 points. The junior came up with play after play, just when it seemed the Panthers would inch closer.

“I got dunked last year and I saw them grab that big Gatorade thing and I said, ‘Not today,’” said Slaughter, whose team still managed to soak him. “When I took the job, people told me, ‘Audenried, that place is trash, don’t go there. Why would you go there?’ I said I would turn the program around and change the culture.

“We would get kids who were always unhappy someplace else. This year was bigger than last year because of the pressure. We started well today and looked good, and then had some problems. But this team kept at it.”

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Smith scored 15 points in the first half and 22 in the second, with the support of some heady play by fellow junior guard Senaya Parker, who played at Imhotep her freshman year and finished with 13 points against her former school.

“We could have played better and I could have played better,” said a smiling Smith, who also had 13 rebounds. “We could have beat them by more. My shot wasn’t falling like it usually does. It’s mental. Sometimes I have to stay locked down. I’m working on that.”

The Rockets went into halftime leading by the game’s largest margin, 28-17.

Imhotep crept to within 35-34 with 1minute, 25 seconds left in the third quarter, before Smith and Parker combined to score the final six points of the quarter to end the threat.

Imhotep pulled within 43-40 in the fourth quarter before Smith took over to score the next four points.

Each time the Panthers were within a possession of tying, they would turn the ball over. Audenried’s “Point Breeze press” forced 31 Imhotep turnovers.

The Panthers were led by 6-foot-1 junior Anise Geiger and 5-10 sophomore Geren Hawthorne, who combined for 25 points.

Imhotep will play West Catholic on Wednesday for the District 12 Class 3A championship.

Imhotep made history Saturday by beating Math, Civics & Sciences, 49-39, in the second half of the Public League championship doubleheader.

The Panthers’ seniors became the first group to have ever won four straight Public League championships, and the first four-time Pub champion since the legendary Gene Banks and West Philly’s five-peat (1974-78).

Here is the kicker: Back in the 1970s, Philadelphia Public League teams did not allow freshmen to play. That is what sets these Panthers apart. Banks, for example, went out as a three-time Public League champion, when he certainly could have played his freshman year.

For Imhotep seniors Jeremiah White and Albany-bound Makye Taylor, taking the Pub title every year they played in high school carries a singular sway.

“All I have known is winning at Imhotep, my second home, and I remember how hard I played for the seniors going out my freshman and sophomore years,” Taylor said. “We still have two more to go, with the city championship and the state titles. Me and ‘Miah would be four-time Pub champs, city champs, state champs.

White, who is getting recruiting attention from Kutztown among other Division II and III schools, stated that much of embracing the pressure of winning is derived from the foundational culture created by Imhotep’s legendary coach, Andre Noble.

“We win at ‘Tep, and this senior class over our last four years deserve this, because we know the work we put in,” White said. “I leave a great culture, great teammates, and I know what is going to happen a few weeks from now when we win the state championship again — at states I’m going to let it go and cry like a baby because I’m going to miss all this.

Imhotep never trailed MCS, though the game had its tense moments. Each team struggled to score early, with Imhotep getting out to a 6-0 lead before Maki Hill put the Mighty Elephants on the board for the first time with 2:14 left in the first quarter.

Then the Panthers’ defense took over, MCS struggled at times with the pressure, and it resulted in the Panthers taking what looked like a commanding 27-10 lead into intermission.

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But MCS, much to coach Lonnie Diggs and his team’s credit, kept pecking away. Despite the game seemingly under control by Imhotep, the Mighty Elephants drew within 35-33 with 5:03 left to play.

That was the closest MCS would get.

UConn-bound Ahmad Nowell canned a clutch three-pointer with 4:36 remaining, and the Panthers began building on a cushion.

MCS (17-9), a PIAA Class 3A school, still has plenty of basketball ahead. The Mighty Elephants will take on Devon Prep for the PIAA District 12 Class 3A city championship on Friday at 6 p.m. at West Philly High.

Imhotep will play for the Class 5A city championship against Archbishop Ryan next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Lincoln High School.

“No one has done what these kids did in the 118-year history of the league,” Noble said. “The kids know that. We have been talking about it with them all year.

“We have guys who have made plays all year. What makes this group special is how many young players we are depending on.”

One of those young players include sophomore guard RJ Smith, the MVP of Saturday’s game.

“Jeremiah and Makye have been great leaders and they have helped me,” Smith said. “We do not feel any pressure. MCS came out and made a couple of plays in the second half, but me and [Nowell] stayed poised and kept us going.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.