Audenried entered Sunday’s Philadelphia Public League girls championship with a chance to win its fourth straight title. The Lady Rockets took down Imhotep last year and had a chance to repeat history.
The school’s last three championship teams were keyed by guard Shayla Smith, Philadelphia’s all-time leading scorer. Even without Smith, who now plays at Penn State, Audenried proved it could still bring home the title.
Behind 22 points from forward Nasiaah Russell, Audenried (22-4, 6-0) cruised to its fourth straight PPL title, and second straight against Imhotep (14-10, 5-1), with a 64-50 win. The Lady Rockets grabbed a comfortable lead in the first quarter and never looked back.
“I feel awesome,” coach Kevin Slaughter said. “I feel great. Four straight Public League championships and some of my mentors came to the game today.”
Russell dominated the paint in all four quarters against the Panthers. She had a game-high 22 points and recorded 12 rebounds to take home MVP honors. Senior guard Heaven Reese added 14 points while sophomore guard Chloe Kham chipped in 12.
Guard Geren Hawthorne led Imhotep with 16 points.
“This is my fourth championship and it’s my first time being MVP,” Russell said. “It means a lot to me, even though last year it meant a lot to me, but other people got more recognition. So now that it’s all me, I feel appreciative.”
Imhotep jumped out to a 5-0 lead after it received two technical free throws to start the game. The Lady Rockets marched back behind Russell. The St. John’s recruit had seven straight points to keep Audenried close before a 10-0 run by Audenried near the end of the first quarter gave the Lady Rockets a 24-14 lead that they did not relinquish.
Audenried struggled offensively in the second quarter, scoring only eight points as Imhotep closed the deficit to 32-26 at the half. But Audenried started the second half on a 9-3 run, punctuated by two threes from Reese that gave it a 41-29 advantage.
Every run that Imhotep attempted was answered by the Lady Rockets. Audenried scored three straight buckets to end the third quarter with a comfortable 50-35 lead. Imhotep never got closer than nine points in the final quarter.
“As a team, our sets and our stuff we were trying to run, we were not doing it right,” Slaughter said. “We were not efficient early, but as the game went on, our defense changed the game. Our defense and consistency. We are used to winning.”
Imhotep continued to hang around midway through the fourth quarter, but Kham stepped up to help Audenried put the game out of reach.
The 5-foot-1 guard got free for a layup to push the Lady Rockets’ lead back to double digits, recorded a steal a couple of possessions later, and scored another layup to make it 62-48. Kham extinguished Imhotep’s comeback hopes and helped Audenried close out a fourth straight title.
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