Bodine’s Chikilra Goodman leads nation in girls’ scoring

The headline in Thursday's Inquirer was: "Goodman takes over in Bodine win."

The story beneath it described how senior Chikilra Goodman pumped in 44 points, grabbed 19 rebounds, and made 10 steals in the Ambassadors' 51-35 Public League girls' basketball win over Palumbo on Wednesday.

That headline could have easily been atop every one of Bodine's game stories this season. That's because the 17-year-old Goodman, after scoring a career-high 55 points against Swenson on Friday, is listed as the leading girls' scorer in the nation by maxpreps.com.

That's right: the nation. According to maxpreps.com, Brittney Jefferson of Leggett (Texas) is second at 34.9.

Still, Goodman, who averages 35.4 points per game, is not one to be satisfied.

"I'm working to take my game to another level," she said. "I know I'll need that for college."

So far, St. Peter's (N.J.), Northeastern, Rhode Island, and Boston University have expressed the most interest in the 5-foot-9 Goodman, who plays both guard and forward.

But it's the players who are forced to defend Goodman now who are most concerned with her. And they have had plenty of trouble doing that.

Named honorable mention all-Southeastern Pennsylvania last season by The Inquirer, Goodman - who scored the 1,000th point of her career on Jan. 9, 2009 - closed out Wednesday's game by scoring 14 of her team's 15 points in the fourth quarter.

And nearly all her games are like that.

Check out these numbers:

On Jan. 13, Goodman had 39 points, 22 rebounds and 10 assists in Bodine's 81-40 win over Randolph.

On Jan. 6, Goodman posted a triple-double with 39 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals in Bodine's 51-41 win at Masterman.

On Dec. 22, Goodman finished with 35 points, 24 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals in a 64-38 win over Communications Tech.

And on Dec. 14, Goodman had another triple-double - 34 points, 12 rebounds and 10 steals - in a 54-10 win at Philadelphia Academy Charter.

Don't think it's just the Public League schools that see how talented Goodman is, either. Against York Catholic in the PIAA Class AA state playoffs last season, Goodman scored 14 points in a 63-40 loss. And she netted 29 points and 13 rebounds in a win over Penn Wood of the Del-Val League last season.

Goodman completed her first two seasons with 770 points and 605 rebounds playing with senior guard and prolific scorer Jasmine Elum, a 2,000-point scorer. In 20007-08, the pair led the Ambassadors to the District 12 Class AA championship.

"I like going strong to the basket," Goodman said. "I can also shoot threes, but I've got to do a better job of stopping and popping."

The 55 points against Swenson raised Goodman's total to 404 for this season and more than 1,700 for her career. She also has cracked 1,000 rebounds for her career.

Bodine's victory on Friday was the ninth in 12 games. Its losses have been to Penn Charter of the Inter-Academic League and twice to Frankford, one of the Public League's Class AAAA schools.

The Penn Charter Quakers are 12-4 this season, while the Frankford Pioneers are unbeaten at 12-0.

Although the 55 points is the most for a girl in Southeastern Pennsylvania so far this season, it is short of the Pennsylvania girls' individual game record of 100 set by Dobbins Tech grad Linda Page in a game against Mastbaum in 1981.

Bodine coach Carlos dos Santos became acquainted with Goodman's mother, Tondalaya, when they both coached city middle school teams. Tondalaya Goodman still coaches at Wagner Middle School, and when Goodman, who had attended Catholic school prior high school, appeared headed to Engineering & Science High after eighth grade, her mother pointed her toward Bodine and dos Santos.

"When it came down to final-decision time, I told her I felt she would be better off at a smaller high school like Bodine," Tondalaya Goodman said. "She had been used to smaller schools. I also knew Mr. dos Santos and knew how he coached. We used to do battle each year when he was at Hill-Freedman."

Bodine, a magnet school, has about 250 girls in the school population.

Dos Santos has a young team this season. Three sophomores and a freshman round out the starting lineup. So he not only counts on Goodman for her scoring and rebounding but her leadership.

"I've never seen such determination," dos Santos said of Goodman. "I was a big fan of Charles Barkley and Dennis Rodman when it comes to rebounding, and she reminds me of them."

Goodman, who lives in Overbrook Park, began her basketball career at 5, learning the game from her grandfather, Ronald, her mother and older brother Antoine.

Her late grandfather played for West Philadelphia High, and her mother, a graduate of Germantown High, set career scoring and rebounding records at Hampden Institute, now Hampden-Sydney, in Virginia

Tondalaya Goodman is still a teacher and coach at Wagner Middle School and chairwoman of girls' basketball for the city's public middle schools.

Antoine Goodman played ball at Mercyhurst and Texas College.

"There were always basketballs around," Goodman said. "My grandfather would take me to the playground."

As her career progressed, Goodman said, she often found herself the only girl on her recreation league team. That, she said, made her tougher.

Goodman, who averaged about 24 points a game last season, has four regular-season games left and the playoffs. So she appears to have a shot at reaching 2,000.

If she does, no one will be surprised. And everyone will be proud and delighted.

Said dos Santo, "I'm blessed to have her."