By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SPENCER — North Rowan senior Bailee Goodlett, aka Bailee Buckets, is amazed and amused when she hears for the first time about an era when high school girls basketball was a 6-on-6 game with specialized rules and specialized roles.

“For real?” asks a skeptical Goodlett, a 5-foot-5 bundle of energy and a Catawba College basketball signee who amassed 2,026 thrilling points for the Cavaliers.

For real. That’s why Goodlett’s prodigious scoring feats were sometimes accompanied by mysterious phrases such as “the most points since modern rules were adopted.”

For a long time, girls weren’t deemed to possess the necessary physical capabilities — the stamina, the strength, the speed, whatever — to play the same game as the guys. At least until the 1970s, it wasn’t considered very lady-like for girls to sweat too much.

Goodlett knows she and her twin sister Bloom arrived in the world back-to-back at the right time, at a juncture in history when girls are allowed to play both ends of the floor hard. Goodlett played both ends for the Cavaliers with equal fury and passion. She probably was as good as anyone ever has been at turning aggressive defense into instant offense.

If she had a a dollar for every steal she turned into two points, she could retire as a teenager.

Goodlett is 5-foot-5 in her tennis shoes. She does not fire many 3-pointers. Yet she averaged more points per game in her career than anyone, male or female, who has ever walked onto the basketball floor wearing the jersey of the North Rowan Cavaliers.

To be precise, Goodlett averaged 22.0 points per game for the course of a 92-game high school career. North’s other two 2,000-point scorers, Stephanie Cross and Sophilia Hipps, monumental players, averaged 21 points for their careers.

“It’s not like I’ve got a lot of hobbies and other things I do,” Goodlett said with a laugh. “I’m a basketball girl — 24/7 basketball.”

Goodlett has been devoted to the game as far back as she can remember, but her high school efforts got a tardy start. Her delayed freshman season was limited to a dozen games by COVID. She was the No. 3 scorer for the Cavaliers with 10.8 points per game, a solid player, for sure, but not someone who appeared headed for record books.

The big leap came through constant work between her freshman and sophomore seasons. Her last three seasons, she led Rowan girls in points per game every year — averaging 18.4 as a sophomore, 27.3 as a junior and 25.9 as a senior.

North’s official record for 2023-24 was 25-4 — 29 games — but the Cavaliers played six without the Goodletts. There also was one forfeit victory for which no stats could be accumulated.

There was a wild week once when Goodlett announced that she was special with games of 40-35-40. The 793 points she scored her junior season are a school record. The 45 points she scored against South Rowan this season are a school record.

At her recent signing day festivities, surrounded by family, friends and piles of food, she received a 2,000-points trophy that stood almost as tall as she does.

Ask Goodlett which achievement means the most and it definitely was reaching that 2,000-points milestone in the second round of the 1A state playoffs at home against Polk County, the next-to-last game of her high school career.

With modern rules, only six Rowan girls have accomplished that feat.

“The 2,000-point mark was the thing that I am most proud of,” Goodlett said. “I missed freshman COVID games and I missed games as a senior, and I’ve got some haters out there, a lot of people that said there was no way I would ever score 2,000. But I got it. And I got it the right way. I still passed the ball to my teammates when they were open. I did everything I could to be a team player and a floor leader. And I still scored 2,000.”

She wasn’t fibbing when she talked about scoring 2,000 within a team framework for coach Darra Walker. There were games in which she had double-figure steals. There were games in which she had double-figure assists. Goodlett’s senior teammate, Brittany Ellis, averaged 20.7 points per game, making them the first dynamic duo in program history to average 20-plus points. Dasia Elder blossomed into an all-conference player by consistently being able to swish 3-point looks. Goodlett frequently got the ball to Elder when she was in her spots.

Goodlett has quick hands and quick feet as well as a competitive mindset and a sprinter’s straight-line speed. She can dribble faster than most high school girls can run, so when she got a step on the pack it was over. Someone was taking the ball out of the net.

She missed very few layups, even when there was contact. Sometimes she’d let a defender catch up, just so she could make it a three-point play.

If there’s one word to sum up Goodlett, it’s energy. She moves fast and talks so fast it’s like she’s been plugged into an electrical socket.

Goodlett was recruited by quite a few Division II programs that valued her impact as a ball-handler, penetrator, passer and defender. Despite that mountain of points, she probably does all of those things at least as well as she scores.

It came down to Mars Hill, which successfully recruited West Rowan standout Lauren Arnold, or Catawba.

Catawba won that battle.

“Amazing coaches and players at Catawba and always so welcoming when I went over there — like I already was part of their team,” Goodlett said. “And they’re losing a great point guard (All-America Lyrik Thorne), so I think Catawba is a great fit for my skills. Lyrik was there five years and it will be a young team next season, but I know I can help. I’ve got to keep working on my shot, but I’ll be ready to help and to do my best.”

Goodlett’s best should be very good in the South Atlantic Conference. She won’t be expected to play like the fifth-year Thorne, but if she can play like the rookie Thorne of the COVID days, that would be a huge boost for the Indians.

Some girls want to go off to school, but some embrace the chance to stick close to their roots. Goodlett fits the latter category.

She is close to her mother, Meagan Walker-Goodlett, North’s faithful scorekeeper who has attended nearly every game the twins ever have played in, and that’s counting AAU.

She is also close to her twin sister. Bloom and Bailee are equally strong students, and while Bloom, North’s defensive stopper, has no plans to be on the basketball team, she also will be a freshman student at Catawba.

“Bloom being at Catawba makes everything happy and makes everything right,” Bailee said.

The twins helped North rack up the most wins in school history as seniors. North won the Central Carolina Conference regular season and tournament championships and beat rival and nemesis Salisbury three times.

“The game at Salisbury was the one I’ll remember the longest because people were booing us when we walked out there, but then we didn’t miss very many shots,” Goodlett said. “That was a great game for all of us, and it was just a great season. I put 100 percent into it from beginning to end. People don’t always see the work that goes into having a season like that. We were getting up early to get in the gym. We were on the track running laps.”

Goodlett’s schedule is busy even with basketball season in the books. She’s working at Krispy Kreme and balancing her new job with school work and demanding workouts.

Goodlett plans a sports management major at Catawba.

“I’d like to own a business, do something to help kids through sports,” Goodlett said. “I’ve got my dreams.”

A lot of them already have come true.