City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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PHILADELPHIA — Upon emerging from the Westtown locker room Saturday afternoon, one of the first things Kennedy Henry was greeted by was a question about how her face was doing. The 6-foot Westtown senior center who transferred in from Blair Academy is on the rail-thin side. Do no let that deceive you.

The Villanova-bound Henry is far tougher, and far stronger than her appearance. She guarded Audenried’s treacherous scoring machine Shayla Smith on Saturday and held her own, helping the Moose to an 85-58 victory in Audenried’s home season-opener.

Westtown was led by sophomore stars Jordyn Palmer’s game-high 36 and Jessie Moses’ 23, while Smith finished with 25, with 16 coming in the first half when the game was still competitive.

For Henry, this was another nice step in fitting with the nationally ranked No. 6 Moose, who moved to 3-0 with the victory.

Henry got walloped in the face more than a few times on Saturday and held her ground. Her reach and athleticism caused Smith to work for each of her 25 points.

The packed gym saw Henry finish with six points. They also saw someone who is fitting in quite well with her team and new environment, playing before large crowds.

“I thought this was a great test for us playing in front of this big crowd at Audenried and a big test for us mentally, because this was our biggest crowd so far this season,” Henry said. “I’ve fit in well here. Unfortunately, I didn’t hit as many shots as I wanted to, and I would say I rushed a lot of shots. But I did not let that stop me from continuing to do other things off the ball.”

Like playing stubborn defense against Smith.

Henry was able to contest and block of couple of Smith’s shots, and in the second half, she out her shoulder down and tried to drive more. Henry, with some help, was able to stop those drives.

She may have sore ribs on Sunday because of Smith boring down and sticking her left shoulder into her.

“Shayla does like to bump a lot, so I had to stay on my feet and keep a hand up, along with my help,” Henry said. “I got hit in the face a few times while we were trapping, I got knocked down a few times, but it was fine. I got back up.”

She has felt very comfortable in her brief time at Westtown. She likes where this team is. She feels the Moose could communicate better on defense, but that is a work in progress and will improve.

Moose coach Fran Burbidge is certainly pleased with his new addition. It can be a daunting process transferring from one school to another, especially for your senior year. It can be even that much more intimidating when you enter a program like Westtown, with players like Palmer and Moses.

Henry has been a perfect fit—as if she has known her teammates for years.

“Kennedy was a little rushed, our team was a little rushy on both ends of the floor, and we are good with playing fast,” Burbidge said. “But today we got a little rushy and caught up into that on the offense and defensive end. We were leaving gaps open. That we were able to work our way through it and do some good things was beneficial.  

“We started Kennedy on Shayla today. She did a nice job. Shayla is very good. She will score. You can’t get down when she makes shots. I think Kennedy rushed a few of her shots, but we all had our hands in that. We wanted to play in this great atmosphere and this was a great thing for the city. Kennedy will be a very integral part of this. She is a competitor and plays hard. Because she is thin, do not think that she is not strong—and tough.”

Westtown led from start to finish, though Audenried was within 8-7 and 11-9 in the first quarter, before the Moose began to gradually take command. The Rockets had problems dealing with Westtown’s superior size and speed.

Rockets’ coach Kevin Slaughter admitted he took some slack for opening against a national-level program like Westtown, but he has no regrets. He saw some shining moments from players who will serve important roles as the season progresses, especially from 6-foot-3 sophomore center Nasiaah Russell. She was returning after a season-ending knee injury wiped out her freshman year.

She did not start. But when she entered the game with 5:30 left in the first quarter, she made sure Westtown knew she was on the court when she firmly nudged Westtown’s Boston College-bound center Kennedy Hall to say, ‘Hey, I’m back.’  

Russell blocked four shots and grabbed six rebounds on her way to 8 points.

“I’ll be honest, I do not like moral victories, but no one thought any public school could compete with a national No. 6 team in the country,” Slaughter said. “This was Nasiaah’s first game back after last year and played strong. I’m happy because no one in the Philadelphia Public League or Catholic is as good as that.

“My girls played well and Shayla was a little upset, because she though she should have done more. But Kennedy Henry did a great job on her, and they are a great team. I had some people riding me that I picked this as our first game. This way, we know how good we have to play to be that good. I’m hoping we move forward and go 30-1 from here (laughs).”

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By Quarter
Westtown (3-0): 18 | 22  |  19 |  26 ||  85
Audenried (0-1):  11  | 18  |  13  | 16 ||  58

Scoring
Westtown: Jordyn Palmer 36, Jessie Moses 23, Atlee Vanesko 11, Kennedy Hall 6, Kennedy Henry 6, Ishana Sandarajan 3.

Audenried: Shayla Smith 25, Nasiaah Russell 8, Heaven Reese 7, Senaya Parker 6, Ciani Winston 5, Ikera Ellison 2, Taylor Stevenson 2, Ahlee Mill-Scott 2, Iyonna Ellison 1.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.