So the cell phone rings today when I’m about five minutes from Galesburg High School, where the Morton Lady Potters would play the host Silver Streaks. Across the last six seasons, the Potters had beaten Galesburg seven straight times. But not today. They lost, 40-37. And I shoulda known.

There was the day’s fog and rain portending gloom. And there was the boy on the iPhone saying, “Hi, Grandpa.”

Uh-oh, is what I think when I hear those words. An old friend once told me not to be depressed when grandchildren move away. She said, “They’ll find you when they need money.”

So the boy has a story. He’s telling it to me in detail. Being a grandfather who has heard many stories, I don’t pay total attention to this one. I leave my car and walk toward the Galesburg school and its magnificent John Thiel Gymnasium. As I walk, waiting for the $$$ to appear in the boy’s story, my selective-hearing chooses to hear every fourth or seventh word, such as “my car,” “helping a buddy,” “a beer,” “cops,” “towed,” “impounded.”

I cut to the chase. “How much do you need?”

The boys says the tow was this much, the paperwork was that much, the $75 impound fee was ridiculous.

“How much?”

“$700.”

“Say again?”

“And I got sick in the jail overnight . . .”

At which point, my hearing shuts down all the way. I tell the boy I’ll call him after the game. I climb to the safety of the seventh row in the bleachers behind the Lady Potters bench. From there I expect to be comforted by another Potters’ victory solidifying their hold on the No. 1 ranking among the state’s 200 Class 3A teams and giving them an upper hand in Galesburg’s Martin Luther King tournament.

But, yes, I shoulda known. The Potters had played with urgency and competitive zeal two days earlier in a romp over Lincoln-Way Central, a good 4A team. Today was a new, lesser day. Today they were tight, tentative, and, no doubt, tired playing their fourth game in 67 hours.

Down 26-16 at halftime to a quick, resourceful Galesburg team that had a 17-5 record, the Potters came back late. Five times in the last quarter, they had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead with one of the 3-pointers they’ve thrown in all season. Five times they had a chance – and they failed each time. Three times they turned it over and twice they missed shots they’ve made a thousand times. By one statistician’s count, the Potters committed 19 turnovers.

Then there is the matter of The Missing 3. The Potters lived by the 3-point shot in winning 19 of 20 games. Their coach, Bob Becker, called them a perimeter-shooting team. They were averaging 7 3’s a game. But this day they made none. They tried only three. In that second-half comeback, when heroic work is necessary to win games, the Potters didn’t even try a 3. Their longest field goal all day was a four-footer.

Meanwhile, Galesburg was 4-for-12 on 3’s in the first half. The Streaks’ dominance from outside was so obvious, and so important, that it caused me to make a note at halftime. At the top of my third-quarter play-by-play, I scribbled a prediction: “1st team to make a 3 wins.”

Galesburg’s 3 came with 52 seconds left in the third quarter and gave the Streaks a 33-24 lead.

Then Morton made its only “run,” if outscoring someone 7-0 in six minutes can be called a run. Brandi Bisping made two free throws, Josi Becker threw in a half-handed layup, and Tenley Dowell scored a layup-and-one to make it 33-31 at 5:13 of the fourth quarter.

Galesburg was staggering under Morton’s full-court defensive pressure. But an offensive rebound bucket made it 35-31 at 4:25.

Try as it might, Morton could not make the defensive stop it needed in those last minutes, nor could it make the offensive play necessary to climb to a tie.

Becker liked his team’s comeback in the second half, but said, “In the first half, they outplayed us at both ends. They dictated everything to us. . . .In a game like this one, we had way too many turnovers. . . . Galesburg’s a sectional-quality team, so we may see them again. We’ll learn from this and go on.”

Galesburg coach Evan Massey said, “We’ve beaten some good teams, but Morton is a really good team. People think of Morton as an offensive team because they all can really score, but it’s their defense that’s tough. What we did well tonight was get into our sets quicker.”

And, I thought, Galesburg handled Morton’s late-game pressure well with superb passing.

Massey laughed. “We survived,” he said.

For the third straight game, Morton had only one scorer in double figures. Bisping led with 12, Dowell and Caylie Jones had 6 each, Becker and Courtney Jones 4 each, Lindsey Dullard 3, Jacey Wharram 2.

As promised, before heading back down I-74 in the fog, I called the grandson to check on Western Union arrangements to move money from Illinois to Virginia.

“$700, right?” I said.

“It was,” he said.

“Was?”

“Now it’s been another day at the impound.”

Potters lose. A pre-game slice of sausage pizza costs me $2.50, a bottle of water $1.50, a grandson $775. A hard day at the office, folks.