Shayla Smith leads Audenried past Imhotep to capture third straight girls’ Public League title

Shayla Smith had been in this situation before. After a back-and-forth first half, Universal Audenried Charter entered halftime with a two-point lead over Imhotep Charter. Smith, the two-time Philadelphia Public League champion and Penn State pledge, pulled all her teammates together in the locker room and delivered a message.

“Shayla was leading,” said coach Kevin Slaughter. “She told the kids, ‘Let’s come out strong.’ She said a curse word and said, ‘Let’s blow them the F out.’ And that’s what happened. We stepped it up.”

A second-half scoring barrage led by Smith helped Audenried defeat Imhotep, 65-52, in the Philadelphia Public League championship at La Salle University’s John E. Glazer Arena. It marks the Lady Rockets’ third straight PPL title.

» READ MORE: Shayla Smith, the city’s all-time girls’ scoring leader, carves her name next to other Philly hoops greats

Smith, who is Philadelphia girl’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer, finished with 35 points, with 21 coming in the second half. The soft-spoken senior didn’t have much to say after her third straight city championship. Instead, she credited her teammates who delivered a “perfect performance.”

“Everyone did their part,” Smith said. “It was the whole team. You know, I’m a scorer so I’m just going to score naturally. But beyond that we played great defense, we stopped them from scoring, and we won by a bigger margin than they beat us earlier this season.”

That defeat, 67-64 on Jan. 22, weighed heavily on the minds of Slaughter and his players before Sunday’s final. The loss was sandwiched in the middle of a nine-day stretch when the Lady Rockets lost three games. It was the toughest part of the season, but it also prepared them for the bigger games that were yet to come, Slaughter said.

Smith got the scoring started Sunday right away with a mid-range jump shot just seconds into the game. The next 16 minutes of play went back-and forth — neither team led by more than three points at any point before halftime.

For the Lady Panthers, junior Geren Hawthorne kept things close early on, converting on a pair of driving layups in the first quarter. The Panthers took their first lead in the closing seconds of the opening quarter, when senior guard Calista Gaymon made two free throws to push the score to 18-17.

Then Smith responded within five seconds, driving hard to the rim and taking the lead right back as the first quarter came to a close.

The second quarter was more of the same for both teams, but a three-point shot from junior forward Heaven Reese and a free throw from Smith gave Audenried a slim lead at the half.

Despite the lead, Smith was displeased with her team’s performance and knew it was going to take a much better second half to pull out the win.

“We had to reset,” Smith said. “The score was zero to zero in our heads, and that’s how we had to treat it. I told the team, ‘We are gonna have to punish them,’ because they beat us earlier on [this season]. So, yeah, that’s what we did.”

The second half was a complete script flip — and Smith was at the center of it.

After a three pointer from Reese to push the Rockets’ lead to six, Smith raced down the floor, stole the ball, and ran it all the way back the other way for two. Less than three seconds later, the same thing happened.

Then, Smith fired off a heat check three-point shot from about four steps behind the line. It went in and the crowd went crazy. In a flash, the Rockets were up by 12 points.

“I’m just so excited,” Slaughter said. “Everybody came up, supported us all year long. I’m especially happy for our young ladies. What made this one sweeter was our seniors. Shayla, Senaya Parker, Reynah Rattliff, Ikera Ellison. My seniors and our support system made it great. And it was Shayla’s last one, so that’s why it’s better.

“Shayla sealed off her legacy. Right now she’s chasing Maureece Rice to become the all-time leading scorer in Philadelphia history. Shayla being able to do that would be crazy.”

The Lady Rockets will need a strong playoff run to put Smith in a position to break Rice’s all-time scoring record of 2,681. While Slaughter is happy with another PPL championship, it’s always been about much more than that to him and his players, he said.

“I want a state title,” Slaughter said. “I want that state championship. It’s funny, I’m looking at [Reynah Rattliff’s] mom right now. Reynah, Shayla, Senaya, they’ve never won at states. So I want to do that for them.”