City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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It’s not hard to identify the standard of the Philadelphia Public League girls basketball scene in the last decade-plus. Season-after-season, the Imhotep girls find themselves in the Public League title game, making their seventh straight appearance Saturday at the Liacouras Center for a 1 p.m. championship contest against Audenried.

The Panthers are the two-time reigning Public League champions and have won four of the last five league titles. 

“Our mentality is to definitely not defend a title, it’s to go win a title,” Imhotep coach David Hargrove said. “This is a brand new group of girls, a lot of them getting their first opportunity to play in a game of this magnitude.”

Audenried lost to the Panthers in the 2019 championship game, but hasn’t been back since. The Rockets enter Saturday looking for their first league title in program history.

“We’re very aware of some of the stuff that’s going on,” Slaughter said. “I try to let them know I'm a basketball historian. It’s time to change the narrative.”

“Everybody’s saying this is our year.”

Auderied took down Imhotep, 72-50, in the teams’ first meeting earlier this season. The Rockets lost at least 16 in a row to the Panthers before that one (Max Preps’ records goes back to 2013). Hargrove said Audenried’s tempo sticks out to him as the Rockets like to push the pace and shoot a lot of threes.

Rockets sophomore guard Shayla Smith scored 36 points in the Jan. 25 win. Smith became the fastest Public League girls basketball player to 1,000 career points earlier this season and was named the league’s 2022-23 Most Valuable Player as well.

“She’s a big-time scorer, so if we allow her to play one-on-one and allow her to get to her comfort spots on the floor, she’s very dangerous, in particular on the jumpshot side of things,” Hargrove said. “A lot of pull-up shots off the dribble, which is very challenging to defend.”

Slaughter highlights that his team goes deeper than just Smith. Junior forward Aniyah Howard went for 20 points and 20 boards in a 69-42 semifinal win over Freire Charter. A relentless rebounder and defender, the 5-9 forward scored nine points and grabbed 22 rebounds in the first meeting against Imhotep.

Senior ZayAhni Neurell, a lethal 3-point shooter, is the Rockets’ other top scoring threat outside Smith and Howard. Senior Erionnah Shelly is the only senior who’s been with the program all four years of her career and acts as the “glue” for Audenried.

“They were keying on Shayla,” Slaughter said of the first meeting. “They were basically, scouting us and for the most part if you don’t really go into detail with our team, everybody thinks that since Shayla’s our best player she’s our only player. They found out really quick that we had some other players who go pretty hard.”

Imhotep is led by senior forward/wing Samya Stevens, one of the few holdovers from last season’s title team. Hargrove said she’s really hit her stride in the last half of the season. Sophomore 5-10 forward Anise Geiger has been the Panthers’ other go-to scorer, giving them an inside presence.

Junior point guard Ky’janae Cooper and sophomore shooting guard Calista Gaymon are playmakers who can knock down shots. The Panthers go pretty deep after that top four, something Hargrove hopes can be the difference in Saturday’s game.

“Matchup wise (for us), it’s just really making it a team game,” Hargrove said. We can’t let one player dominate the game. Our strength is in numbers, kind of like the Hoyas back in the day when they won their championships. They have the star power, but we have the deeper team I believe, so it’s going to be about us being able to take advantage of our depth and how we play and make things challenging for them as well.”

Slaughter agrees Imhotep’s advantage in Saturday’s matchup is the Panthers’ depth.

“They have the pedigree and they usually have a lot of players,” Slaughter said.

“They have 15 kids who all play AAU. They all understand basketball. They all have a high basketball IQ. With us, it’s just trying to stay locked in and be disciplined and be focused.”

“They come at you in droves.”

Both squads are hoping to bring a sizable supporting section with them to the Liacouras Center on Saturday. There’s a chance this could be a common postseason matchup over the next couple years.

Slaughter said his team simply wasn’t good enough to take down the Panthers in 2019, but with Smith leading the way this group has the chance to start something special at Audenried.

“We’re just looking forward to it,” Slaughter said.  “I feel like the kids are like, ‘Let’s get this one monkey off our back.’ Let’s get one, and if we get this one, we think more kids are going to want to come here and I think everything is going to roll down from here because Shayla’s only a sophomore.”

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Imhotep hopes to hold off West Philadelphia for 3-peat

The Public League boys championship at 3 p.m. also features league standard bearer Imhotep, the two-time defending league champions, searching for a three-peat against an upstart program.

West Philadelphia hasn’t been to the league championship game since 1988 and the Speedboys are looking to pull off a major upset against the nationally-ranked Panthers for their first title since 1978.

“I think it’s our turn,” Speedboys coach Adrian Burke said after a quarterfinal win over Constitution on Tuesday. “I think it’s time for a change, I think it’s time to take it back to West Philly.”

West Philadelphia has an extremely balanced group with a mix of youth and experience. Freshman 6-7 forward Make Butts and senior guards Elijah Hester and John Fields all average more than nine points per game. 

Freshman guard Kayden McKie was critical on both ends of the semifinal win over Constitution and classmate Khabir Washington can hit shots as well. Seniors Simere Blagman, Jabrill Jackson and Jaden Williams, a strong forward, and junior Abdurahman Coulibaly are among the other key pieces for West Philly.

Nationally-ranked Imhotep has yet to be tested in its run through the Public League tournament. Senior forward Justin Edwards, a Kentucky recruit ranked No. 1 in the country, highlights the talented bunch. He dominated the first half of the quarterfinal and semifinal wins.

Senior guard Rahmir Barno (Florida Gulf Coast) and junior guard Ahmad Nowell, a high-major recruit, both recently eclipsed the 1,000-point mark.

The Panthers will be without junior forward Makye Taylor until next week, but they’re still loaded with senior guard Yahmir Satterfield a 3-point threat and tough defender and junior forward Jeremiah White sliding into the starting lineup to provide another athletic, aggressive finisher and rebounder. Behind them freshman guard RJ Smith and bouncy senior wing Baasil Saunders lead a list of players who would start on most other teams around the Pub.

“I like our chances against any team against their best run on our worst day,” Edwards said after the quarterfinal win over Dobbins Tech. “We’ll just go into the game with the same mentality we came into this game.”