By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

Seventh in a series of reports on local basketball teams …

SPENCER — North Rowan’s girls basketball team will look different without 2,000-point scorer Bailee Goodlett, Central Carolina Conference Player of the Year Brittany Ellis, defensive whiz Bloom Goodlett and head coach Darra Walker, who had 45 wins in two seasons.

Those missing persons led a powerful 2023-24 team that was 25-4, ran the table in the 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference, made the third round of the state playoffs and was sixth in the final 1A MaxPreps rankings.

Still, new coach Mia Terry doesn’t think the Cavaliers will be in a rebuilding mode.

“It’s not like we’ve got a brand new team,” said Terry, who like Walker, is a former Livingstone College athlete. “We do have three freshmen who are new to the program, but a lot of girls who were part of that team are still on this team. It’s not like all the faces are new.”

The girls who will return obviously will have larger roles and greater responsibilities. Bailee Goodlett and Ellis were such a whirlwind of offense that Walker could send them out there and know those two girls would take care of 45 points. That dynamic will change. Prolific scorers like that aren’t normal for high school teams. much less having two of them. Goodlett’s quickness also pretty much eliminated anyone being able to press or trap the Cavaliers. That also changes.

Dasia Elder is the best-known returner. The first point the senior scores this season will be the 500th of her career. She was the third scorer last season with 10.7 points per game. She also had a four-game stretch late in the season — 20, 17, 18, 15 against good teams — that indicated she is capable of averaging 15 or so as the No. 1 offensive option.

“She’s a good all-around player, and she’ll be doing more of the ball-handling than she’s done in the past,” Terry said.

Krisstyle Stockton is an experienced returner, who was North’s fifth scorer with 4.2 points per game. She’s an athletic rebounder.

“She’s going to bang for us and is one of our strongest players,” Terry said.

Stockton may average double-digit rebounds. North will need her to get more put-backs and points this season.

Allanah McAthur is a senior guard with quite a bit of experience and a lot of speed.

“She’s very sound defensively and never gets tired,” Terry said.

Alyssa Mason is a senior point guard who plans to graduate early, but Terry expects her to help win some games while she’s still in green and gold.

Zakiya Oglesby will be big inside for the Cavaliers. She had some strong rebounding games as a freshman and scored in double figures in one game.

Kanya Cowan and Adrionna King were bench players last season who will be getting a lot more minutes. Terry is optimistic they are going to be able to make up some of the points North lost when the Class of 2024 graduated.

The three freshmen are Paris Connor, Essence Robinson and Da’Riya Carpenter.

The 5-foot-10 Terry played high school ball at Webb High in Oxford. She competed as a track and field thrower as well as a basketball player for Livingstone. She was part of the Class of 2022. Her degree is in psychology.

“I’m learning something every practice,” Terry said. “The girls are going to be learning too as this season moves along, not just basketball, but life lessons.”