Don’t ask me how they did it because I was there and I have no idea except that their littlest big girl grabbed the game by the throat and then their scaredest (is that a word?) rookie got brave when she needed to be the bravest kid out there and so the Morton High School Lady Potters beat Washington, 42-35, for a sectional championship that moved them into the Elite Eight, three victories away from a second straight state championship.

I’ll stop here. I’ll catch my breath. You might want to read that first paragraph again because I’m pretty sure I was on a fast break with no idea how to finish it. So I’ll wait here until you read that again and I’ll do my part by trying to make plain what the hell I’m talking about.

Better, yes, to explain it in four simple, clear words. Those words are . . . .

Jadison Wharram!

Tenley Dowell!

Wharram claims to be 5-foot-8 and I claim to be a Brad Pitt clone, grown old. Jadison is 5-8 “in her tennis shoes,” assistant coach Bill Davis has said, but she plays inside with the big ‘uns, which is why I call her the Potters’ littlest big girl. She was never bigger than in the third quarter of last night’s game at Galesburg High’s John Thiel Gymnasium.

In 5 minutes and 5 seconds, she scored 11 of Morton’s points in a 13-2 run that brought the Potters from three down to eight up. She did it with a driving layup on the baseline, then a pair of 17-foot jump shots followed by two more baseline drives and a free throw.

Afterwards, asked about those moments, it was as if all that had happened without her notice.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything like we were on a run,” the senior forward said. “The baseline drives were there and I just took ‘em. What I felt at that time was that the team was really coming together.”

From there on, Washington never got closer than three points largely because, near the end of the frenzied game, who steps to the free throw line for Morton except maybe the last girl you want to step to the free throw line with the game and the season depending on how she does.

Tenley Dowell is a freshman, a 5-9 guard. She’s going to be really good. Right now she’s good. She’s good at many things, but one of those things is not free-throw shooting. For the season, she’s at about 50 percent. On this night, she’d made 1 of 2 in the first quarter and hadn’t been back to the line until there were 65 seconds to play and Morton led, 35-32. Here she came.

“I was nervous,” she said later. “I was thinking, ‘I gotta make these.’”

On a scale of 10, how nervous?

“I think a 7,” she said nervously.

Wednesday mornings, before school, the Potters shoot. The greatest of the Boston Celtics, Larry Bird, used to do morning sessions in high school at French Lick, Indiana. His high school team once lost a game because a kid who never showed up for the morning work missed an important free throw. Thirty years later, Bird could still tell you that kid’s name.

Point is, Tenley Dowell shows up at the Potterdome on Wednesday mornings, wanting to be better than a 50-50 shooter at the line, and so with 65 seconds to play last night and Washington threatening, here’s what Tenley Dowell did.

Made ‘em both.

And 23 seconds later . . .

Made another.

And 7 seconds after that . . .

Swish, swish.

The freshman made 5 of 6 when she needed to make 5 of 6 and Morton’s lead moved from 35-32 to 40-33 with 35 seconds to play.

At that point, for the first time in an hour, a guy could exhale and consider the truth that Morton had beaten Washington again (for the third time this season) and raised its record to 30-3. It did it with the tenacious, relentless defense and grind-it-out offense that has shaped the team’s identity since its leading scorer, all-state guard Chandler Ryan, was lost for the season with a knee injury 24 games ago.

Wharram led Morton with 19 points. Dowell had 8, Caylie Jones 7, Josi Becker and Brandi Bisping 3 each, and Kayla McCormick 2.

It was the kind of hard-earned victory that moved the team’s coach, Bob Becker, to rhapsodies of praise for his girls’ grit, toughness, resolve, purpose, and all-around determination to do exactly what assistant coach Davis had proposed in the locker room before the game.

Dipping into his high school basketball days at Morton, Davis told the girls about a cheer he remembered. He even did it for them . . .

“Rah-rah-ree, kick ‘em in the knee!

“Rah-rah-rass, kick ‘em in the . . .other knee!”

Bisping, the team’s leading scorer this season, was among the Potters’ leading knee-kickers this night. Though she rebounded and defended well, her offensive work was limited by one official who called three offensive fouls on her, at least of two of which were of the phantom/invisible/are-you-kidding-me kind. It was further testament to the Potters’ refusal to lose that they won despite Bisping’s fouling out with 2:50 to play when Morton led 31-26. Unlike your correspondent, Bisping could explain the whole thing simply: “We’ve got heart through the roof.”

Now it’s on to the super-sectional against Burlington Central next Monday night at Bureau Valley High School.

You well may ask, “Where is Bureau Valley High School?”

At Manlius.

You then may ask, “Where’s Manlius?”

Damned if I know.