North seniors. The cheerleaders lost coach Alexis Greer in December.

 

North Rowan team. Jacqui Smith Watson photos.

Staff report

SPENCER — Catawba recruit Bailee Goodlett’s 2000th career point came quietly on a free throw, but she helped her team make more noise.

Seventh-seeded North routed Polk County 80-41 in the second round of the 1A state playoffs on Friday. The Cavaliers rained a dozen 3-pointers on the 10th-seeded Wolverines, including five by red-hot Dasia Elder.

Coached by Darra Walker, North (25-3) won its 20th straight game, adding to the program record for consecutive victories.

Polk County (16-11) was in the second round for the first time since 2015 and wasn’t in the game long. Goodlett scored eight in the first quarter as the Cavaliers breezed to a 22-9 lead.

Then North connected on five 3s in the second quarter, with Elder and Brittany Ellis making two each.

Goodlett needed 12 points coming into the game for 2,000. She got to 1,999 with a 3-pointer and reached the milestone in her final game in the North gym when she got to the foul line in the second quarter.

She’s the third Cavalier to score 2,000 and joined Division I players Stephanie Cross and Sophilia Hipps in an exclusive club. Cross, a 1994 North gradute, scored 2,019. Hipps, who graduated from North in 2006, scored 2,264.

Besides the North trio, the only other Rowan girls to score 2,000 points in the 5-on-5 era were Salisbury’s Shayla Fields (2,783), South Rowan’s Janiya Downs (2,371) and West Rowan’s Abigail Wilson (2,191).

The Cavaliers led comfortably at halftime, 43-22.

North hit five more 3s in the third quarter to open a 71-35 lead.

Bloom Goodlett, Bailee’s taller twin, made three 3-pointers and tied her career high with 15 points.

Bailee Goodlett scored 22. She had 10 assists and six steals.

Ellis made three 3-pointers and scored 21. She had eight rebounds.

Krisstyle Stockton scored seven points. Allanah McArthur contributed six rebounds.

Elder got all of her 15 points from the 3-point line. Elder has averaged 17.5 points in North’s four post-season games, and that’s made the Cavaliers a dynamic team, with Bailee Goodlett and Ellis both averaging more than 20 per game.

Kylie Lewis led Polk County with 14 points, with Bailey Staton adding 13.

Next for the Cavaliers is a trip to Kernersville to play second-seeded Bishop McGuinness (24-4), The McGuinness Villians, state champs in 2022 and 2023, have lost to Charlotte Catholic and to three private schools.

Also advancing in North Rowan’s section of the 1A West bracket were third-seeded Cherokee and sixth-seeded Thomas Jefferson.

 

Polk     9     13     13    6    — 41

North   22   21    28   9    — 80

NORTH — Bailee Goodlett 22, Ellis 21, Elder 15, Bloom Goodlett 15, Stockton 7.