Before the Morton High School girls basketball coach, Bob Becker, climbed the ladder to the net, he had kissed his sophomore point guard, who is his daughter, and once up there he snipped the last loop and twirled the net above his head, letting it fly down to the celebrants. It landed in a player’s hands, Jadison Wharram’s, and the canny veteran did a canny veteran thing. She tossed the net to a precocious rookie, Tenley Dowell, who draped it around her neck, a halo lit by her smile.

Dowell had already celebrated once. She took a rebound on Burlington Central’s last shot and dribbled up-court, pausing only to toss the ball in the air happily. All of which was delightful and wonderful and a perfect way to celebrate survival when every possession came with the possibility of heartbreak – all fabulous, except for one thing. The game wasn’t over. Wharram, if not Dowell, knew it.

“When Tenley was fouled, there was still one second to play,” Wharram said.

Actually, in this high-tech time, the clock showed 01.5 seconds to play. Morton led, 32-29. So Dowell would go to the free throw line with a chance to 1) ice the victory, or 2) miss a free throw and allow Burlington Central to throw one in from 70 feet (the things a guy imagines) and send the game into overtime while causing several Mortonites to faint into their popcorn.

Dowell, after all, is a 50 percent free throw shooter, or was before she grew up in the Washington sectional championship game and made 5 of 6 free throws when 5 of 6 were needed. This time, with 01.5 seconds to play, and the Burlington Central student section hoping to distract her by chanting, “USA . . . USA,” Dowell made the first free throw (thank you, rookie) and added the bonus for a 34-29 final.

“When I got the net,” Wharram said, “I gave it to Tenley so she could celebrate again.”

The victory in the super-sectional at Manlius last night moved Morton into the Final Four at Illinois State’s Redbird Arena again. The No. 1-ranked Lady Potters need two more victories for a second straight Class 3A state championship. In a Friday afternoon semifinal, they play second-ranked Morgan Park with the winner playing for the title Saturday afternoon. It is the Potters third Final Four appearance in the last four seasons, their fourth in 10 years.

I could tell you a thousand ways that Morton beat Burlington Central, but I won’t, partly because I can’t read my frenzied scribblings, but mainly because Bob Becker, floating on a cloud of joy an hour after the game, said it all better than any play-by-play notes could say it.

“I love my kids,” the coach said. “They are tough, they are resilient, they will do anything to gut it out. Guts, grit, determination, however you want to say it. They know how to win. They’re winners. They’re winners now and they’ll be winners their entire lives.”

Wait. I hear the basketball gods whispering. They demand explanation of Becker’s euphoria. That much, I can do. I can explain two plays that illustrate the Lady Potters’ refusal to lose.

Both came with the score tied at 25, and both came after Brandi Bisping had made careless passes intercepted by Burlington Central.

At 5:03, Josi Becker, the coach’s daughter, sprinted in pursuit of the Burlington Central girl who had stolen Bisping’s pass. Not only did Becker catch her a step from the hoop, she reached in front and knocked the ball away. Burlington Central retained possession, but Becker’s all-out hustle gave Morton a chance to play 5-on-5 defense — and the Potters’ defensive stop there kept the game tied.

Thirty-two seconds later, Bisping redeemed herself after a second careless pass by out-running the thief to the hoop and setting up so quickly as to draw charge and regain possession.

So, now, let’s do the movie thing and cut to the chase where it has become 27-all with two minutes and six seconds to play. These were two good teams. Both played tenacious defense. Both handled the ball well. In essence, they were the same team, mirror images in important ways, both coming in off dominant seasons (Morton 30-3, Burlington Central 26-4). The lead changed hands seven times in the first half. Burlington Central up two at the most, Morton up five twice early in the third quarter.

With 2:06 to play, Burlington Central tied it at 27 on a driving layup by Kayla Ross, one of five senior starters and one of three Rockets with more than 1,000 points in her career. (Think how good your defense has to be to give that team only 29 points.)

Only 15 seconds later, Morton answered decisively. From her team’s set offense, running a play called “Snap,” the little senior guard Kayla McCormick delivered a pass at the right time and in the right place to the slashing Brandi Bisping, whose left-handed layup produced a bucket — and a free throw if she could ignore the raucous Burlington Central student section again chanting “Brandi . . . Brandi” in hopes of distraction.

Hah. Even before the game, Bisping had cut those students out of her life, never to allow them in again. During warm-ups, she took Morton’s other starters to the side for a talk, most of it meant for Dowell and Josi Becker, newcomers to big-stage moments.

“Those Burlington students were super-mean,” Bisping said later. “I just wanted to make sure that Tenley and Josi didn’t let them get in their heads.”

Bisping’s free throw gave Morton a 30-27 lead which it never lost, thanks to four free throws in the game’s last 25 seconds by Wharram and Dowell.

Bisping led Morton with 13 points, Wharram had 11, Dowell 6, Caylie Jones 2, and McCormick and Jacey Wharram 1 apiece.

One thing more. I should mention the team bus trip to Manlius. Manlius, as I have said, is a tiny village on the prairie of north central Illinois, an hour and 20 minutes north of Peoria on Illinois 40. As reward for making it to the super-sectional, the Lady Potters rode in style, not in a clankety-clank school bus but in a comfy chartered coach. It was a scenic ride, if you like your scenery in Fifty Shades of Brown. Along that stretch of 40 in late February there is nothing but brown grass and brown dirt and siloes and grain elevators and trees that look like witches’ arthritic fingers.

We saw Singing Bird Road, Hillock Hollow Road, and the Murkel Ridge U-Cut Christmas Tree farm. Signs pointed to Wyoming (not that Wyoming, but you could wonder) and Sparland and Osceola. In Bradford, we passed a home flying a Marine Corps flag. We passed three cemeteries. We straddled a dead skunk. We saw a ’38 Packard in a barn lot. The Potters’ trainer, Katie Gavin, once shouted out, “Turkeys! Two in that field!”

Winning made Illinois 40 a paradise. On the smiling ride back through the dark wilds of Stark County, assistant coach Megan Hasler called out to Bob Becker, “Coach, if we win State again, can we buy this bus and use it for all our games?”

A good idea.

A good idea?

Hell, it oughta be a law.