Audenried Charter girls’ basketball captures its first Public League title

Behind the MVP performance of Aniyah Howard, Audenried made some history as its title was a decade in the making.

Audenried celebrates their Philadelphia Public League championship win over Imhotep at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Feb. 25.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

by Matt Ryan

Published Feb. 25, 2023, 5:09 p.m. ET

Audenried girls basketball coach Kevin Slaughter was steaming on the bench for most of the Public League championship game at the Liacouras Center on Saturday.

His team was in a sloppy contest with the Public League title on the line and the team couldn’t find separation.

But with less than a minute left and the Rockets leading Imhotep, 49-46, sophomore Shayla Smith made a three-pointer that put Audenried (21-5) up by six and proved to be the dagger in a 56-48 win.

Slaughter remained calm in the moment, but right when the final buzzer sounded, he ran around the court in pure jubilation.

After all, his team had just won the school’s first Public League title.

“We don’t have a championship in any sport,” Slaughter said. “We don’t have a championship in checkers. We don’t have a championship in art drawing. … So we bringing it home, and I’m proud.”

Rambo

While playing at an event in Washington D.C. in eighth grade, Aniyah Howard was “crashing and falling everywhere.”

One of Slaughter’s friends turned to him and said, “Yo, man, she’s like Rambo … she puts her head down and she just goes.”

Ever since then, the name has stuck, and on Saturday, she certainly lived up to it. The junior took home the game’s MVP honors, posting 17 points and 13 rebounds.

After the game, Slaughter said that he thought his team was going to quit. Not that he didn’t believe in them, they just hadn’t been in that situation before.

“But once [Howard] started bringing the ball up the floor and dribbling it, I said, ‘Oh no, she’s ready,’” Slaughter said. “Because she didn’t care where she got the ball, she just wanted it.”

Growing the program

When Slaughter first got to Audenried nearly 10 years ago, the program had a long way to go. In Slaughter’s first season, someone reached out to him about putting the Rockets in a tournament at Overbrook High School. People told him not to play in it because Imhotep would be there, but that’s not what Slaughter is about.

“That’s the smoke I want because that’s what I come from,” Slaughter said. “They beat us by 40, but I wanted it. A lot of people wouldn’t have done that. They wouldn’t have played them. So then the next year, what happens? More kids start coming.”

Through the years, Audenried continued to bring in talent. The Rockets made it all the way to the Pub title game in 2019, but fell to Imhotep.

According to Slaughter, last year was the first season that the team was filled with AAU players, and now the program has multiple returners that will have a Public League title under their belts.

“We know how it feels, so good, we want to keep having this feeling over and over,” Smith said.

“Makes me hungrier,” Howard said. “I want to get it again.”