I have driven to Dunlap High School seven times in seven basketball seasons. Tonight, for the first time, I found the school without a single navigational turnover, not even a curlicue U-turn. Piece of cake, ‘twas. You go west on I-74 to War Memorial, north on State Route 91 to a left turn at the Alta sign to a right turn at a four-way stop. Don’t pull into the Dunlap middle school (been there, done that). Keep motoring until you see a gas station on the left, make two quick rights, and, sha-zam!, there it is, Dunlap High. Tonight, I was Christopher Columbus landing in the New World.
And then someone in the gymnasium said, “Did you come the new way? So much quicker.”
A new way?
Oh, God.
Once the basketball began, it was the same ol’ same ol’. In my seven seasons, I have seen the Morton High School Lady Potters defeat Dunlap 14 straight times. Tonight’s score: 66-24. A 42-point victory is always a good thing, and this one was especially good considering that the Potters’ lead was only 18-14 until the last 39 seconds of the first half. So Morton won the game’s last 17 minutes, 48-10. That happens when a really good team rips the heart out of a mediocre team and stomps that sucker flat.
The Morton coach, Bob Becker, had been concerned that his back-to-back state champions, currently ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, had allowed lesser teams to stick around. After two hard-earned victories in the Galesburg tournament last weekend, Becker wanted to “polish the machine,” raise its rev rate, smooth away the wrinkles of unforced turnovers, get teams down and “put them away.”
All that, the Potters did tonight. They did it most sensationally late in the first half and early in second. In 3 minutes and 4 seconds, they outscored Dunlap, 17-0. (Fun with math: At 17-0 every 184 seconds, Morton wins, 177-0.)
The 17-0 run started when Dunlap made the mistake of fouling Brandi Bisping on a 3-point try. She made all three free throws with 38.9 seconds left in the first half. Morton up 21-14. At the buzzer, stopping at the arc on a fast break, Tenley Dowell threw in a nothing-but-net 3. Morton up 24-14.
Then came 11 straight points to open the third quarter, this way:
Two free throws by Bisping. A Josi Becker steal and fast break layup. A Bisping steal, fast break layup, and one. Kassidy Shurman turns a Bisping rebound and court-length pass into a layup. Dowell a steal and a runaway layup.
All done in 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
And all done convincingly at both ends. Morton’s trapping defense left the poor Dunlap ballhandlers discombobulated. Its run ‘n gun offense scored at the rim and from the 3-point line (7 more 3’s, the team’s season average). As always, the Potters were relentless in attacking with and without the ball. Going eight players deep – some teams are happy to be two deep – the Potters ran the Dunlap people into dispiriting exhaustion. One of the Eagles, staggering on a drive to the basket, got rid of the ball so awkwardly that it entered the net from below. (Nothing but net, the hard way.)
Becker liked what he saw. “As Coach (assistant Bill Davis) told the team, ‘We played like the No. 2 team in the state tonight,’” Becker said. “If we can bottle that up, we can be really, really good.”
Morton is now 23-2 for the season, 10-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference. Dunlap is 12-11, 5-5.
For the first time in a while, the Potters had four players in double figures. Bisping led with 19, Josi Becker had 14, and Shurman and Dowell 10 apiece. Jacey Wharram and Courtney Jones had 4 each, Bridget Wood 3, and Caylie Jones 2.
As for that “new way” to find Dunlap, a kindly couple offered to guide me from the high school to the more direct, shorter, quicker route back to Morton.
“Follow us,” the gentleman said.
Then, knowing the trials and tribulations of my travels in the flatlands above Grand Prairie Mall, he added what he must have considered essential information.
“We’re in the Ford truck,” he said. “You do know a Ford from a Chevy, right?”
Oh, God.