City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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BETHLEHEM — Audenried girls basketball coach Kevin Slaughter presents a challenge to each foe the Rockets face: “Race me to 75.”

Slaughter hopes to force other teams to play fast like his team enjoys. They push the pace and put on the pressure, and it worked like a charm through the first three rounds of the PIAA Class 4A tournament.

District 2 champion Scranton Prep took the bait Tuesday night and got in the race, but it ran faster.

The Cavaliers poured in 15 triples as they stormed to the PIAA Class 4A championship game with an 83-50 semifinal win at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, ending the deepest run in Rockets history.
“If you can score that much, I gotta give you credit,” Slaughter said. “How can I hate on that? There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I thought we were gonna get there (to Hershey), but it just didn’t work out,” he added.

Junior guard Jenna Hilleband scored 30 points for Scranton Prep, including six 3-pointers, while Audenried junior Shayla Smith scored 25.

The teams traded a few early triples as Scranton Prep go out to a 15-14 lead with less than three minutes left in the first quarter. Then Hillebrand buried a triple Audenried never answered

Scranton Prep led 21-15 heading into the second after burying five 3s. A 20-2 run to start the second period pushed the Cavaliers’ lead to 24. They led 46-21 at halftime behind nine total long balls in the first half.

Hillebrand came out and buried a 3-point shot on the first possession of the second half, and the makes kept on coming. Scranton Prep junior Bella Dennebaum added 19 points (three 3s) and junior Maya Jenkins added 17 points (two 3s). Audenried junior Senaya Parker joined Smith in double figures with 10.

“Even though they were making shots, in my sick, demented mind, I’m thinking, ‘They don’t know what it’s like to score 80 points, they’re going to start getting uncomfortable after a while,’ and they didn’t,” Slaughter said.

“What I really respect about what they did, they kept shooting. … Some teams would have pulled the ball out and held it.”

Scranton Prep will face WPIAL runner-up Blackhawk, a 57-31 winner over Wyomissing in the other semi, in Saturday’s state championship at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Audenried won the first state playoff game in program history last season; it fell in the second round by 17 points. The Rockets came back this season wanting more and got it.

They knocked off local powers Germantown Academy and Archbishop Carroll during the regular season. Even with 6-foot freshman Nasiaah Russell out with an injury for the postseason, Audenried followed up its breakthrough 2022-23 campaign with a second straight Public League championship, the program’s first District 12 title and finally a run to the state semis, dominating its first three opponents before Tuesday's loss.

It’s the farthest any Philadelphia Public League girls program since Imhotep reached the 3A semifinals in 2022. 

“Without the puppy (Russell), everybody thought there’s no way they’re getting out of the first round,” Slaughter said. “They might not even beat Imhotep without her. For us to go on this type of run, it was cool, it really was. But I just think the kids gotta understand it’s a lot of basketball. It really is.

“I think we ran out of the gas.”

Seniors Aniyah “Rambo” Howard and Sakina Nelson will be two of the seniors missed next season. Smith, Parker, sophomores Heaven Reese and Aniyah Cheeseboro and a healthy Russell will be back, though, to try to make a deeper run and become the first Public League girls team to reach Hershey.

“Those kids (Scranton Prep) were here last year, and they lost to Lansdale Catholic,” Slaughter said. “We’re still young.

“We defied a lot of odds, and we set some trends. … We fought but today won today.”

By Quarter

Scranton Prep: 21 | 25 | 29 | 19 || 83

Audenried: 15 | 6 | 16 | 13 || 50

Scoring

Scranton Prep: Jenna Hilleband 30, Bella Dennebaum 19, Maya Jenkins 17, Jayna McIntyre 7, Claire McGrath 5, Ashlyn Moore 3, Mira Sheehan 2

Audenried: Shayla Smith 25, Senaya Parker 10, Aniyah Howard 7, Aniyah Cheeseboro 6, Sakina Nelson 2.

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PIAA 4A Girls

Semifinals (Tue., March 19)
2-1 Scranton Prep 83, 12-1 Audenried 50
7-2 Blackhawk 47, 3-1 Wyomissing 31

Championship at Giant Center (Sat., March 23)
2-1 Scranton Prep vs. 7-2 Blackhawk, 12 p.m.