During the 3v3 portion, Ayla showed good hands defensively, getting active and making things difficult for the offense. Once play shifted to 5v5, the Team 1 guard showed her ability to create off the bounce. She has a quick first step that allowed her to get downhill and put pressure on the defense, while also showing nice touch with a floater in the lane. She used a hesitation dribble at the top of the key to freeze her defender before accelerating past her and getting into the paint. Her change of pace paired with her quickness made her difficult to keep in front.

Ayla has consistently impressed our scouts during games on the PGH Circuit with Mystics Chosen, and she’s going to be an instant playmaker for Yale on day one. Ayla takes the ball hard downhill and has excellent vision as a facilitator. Balanced shooter, shifty handles, finishes well at the rim, active defender, tough, persistent rebounder–she’s ready for a breakout freshman year.

Ayla is an energetic point guard with a nice basketball IQ for her age. All these kids have a lot to develop with their game, but she was solid and poised with the basketball. She got back and played defense well and she showed good footwork.

Ayla was one of my favorite first-time watches today at the MBA Mother’s Day Classic. She was an outstanding facilitator off of dribble penetration, a scrappy defender, and tough as nails. Ayla converted a difficult layup in traffic, made great bounce passes to cutters, assisted on a straight-away three, and used a shifty double-crossover dribble to drive-by for a layup. She anticipated passes to generate steals, chased down rebounds, and changed directions effectively against pressure to create space. Ayla drives hard to the basket and shoots with good balance at the free-throw line. She’ll be a prospect to watch on Mystics 14U CHosen.