It’s going to happen. They’re going to make a run. I could look up how many times they’ve done it. Just know they’re 32 and 2 because they’ve done it a bunch. Tonight, one more time, somebody thought they had a chance against the Morton High School Lady Potters. The somebodies this time were a point up early. But in four or five blinks of the eye, the somebodies were 16 down. To look at the Potters you’d think, nice teenage girls, all smiles, girls having fun. But to play ‘em you’d think, sure, they’re nice. They’re nice, like, they’d steal your lunch money and, sure, maybe they’d give it to orphans, but, anyway, why don’t they just go play UConn?

So Stillman Valley didn’t really have a chance.

Morton 48, the somebodies 31.

Their straight super-sectional victory and fourth in five seasons moves the Potters to the final four at Redbird Arena this weekend. They play a Friday morning semifinal against Chicago Simeon, a 44-23 winner over Morgan Park. They need two more victories for their third straight state Class 3A championship – a three-peat done only once in 40 years of Illinois girls basketball history, that by Lombard Montini in 2010-11-12.

“One step closer,” Brandi Bisping, the Potters’ senior all-stater, said.

For the sake of an analogy to come, I will introduce Stillman Valley’s namesake, the U.S. Army general, Isaiah Stillman. During the Black Hawk war that moved across northern Illinois in the early 19th century, Gen. Stillman led 275 soldiers into a battle with Sauk and Fox warriors. For reasons unknown, the general decided his troops were outnumbered by thousands of Indians when, in fact, there were 50. The general fled the battlefield and history books now speak of “Stillman’s Run.”

Yes, like the poor general, the Stillman High girls thought everything was going well – until it wasn’t.

They led, 17-16, with 3:57 to play in the second quarter. Their star, a 6-foot-3 center, had scored 10 points and dominated the boards. They might have thought, Morton? Big deal. Back-to-back state champions? We’ve got ‘em down. We can play with ‘em. Just keep doing what we’re doing.

Doing what you’re doing is easy against some folks. But not so easy against a team talented enough, smart enough, and relentless enough to disrupt you at both ends of the floor every minute of the game. Once ahead by that single point, Stillman Valley did not score for approximately all night.

In big games, 7 minutes and 57 seconds can feel like all night – and that’s how long Stillman Valley got nothing done.

Meanwhile, the Potters had gone on a 17-0 run. Once down 17-16, suddenly they were up, 33-17. They knew what they’d done. Listen to them sing:

“Crazy awesome,” Bisping said.

“Our defense shut them down,” Josi Becker said.

“Even when we were behind, I was thinking, ‘We got this,’” Jacey Wharram said. “When we got ahead, it was, ‘We’re not going to be behind anymore.’”

“A sigh of relief,” Tenley Dowell said.

The game-turning run deserves close attention because it speaks of so much the Potters do well. Long-time assistant coach Bill Davis put it one fat paragraph, like this:

“We bring pressure defensively that sets up our offense,” he said. “Out of our 2-3 zone, our 1-3-1, our press, we force them into dangerous passes. We know where those passes are going and we take them. We get stops and when you’re turning defensive stops into all those extra layups, you’re on a run.”

Tonight’s game-turning run began with a Bisping put-back of her own missed shot. That made it 18-17 at 3:03 of the second quarter.

Caylie Jones, a junior coming off the bench, “a star in her role,” to quote head coach Bob Becker, followed with a 12-foot jumper. Bisping moved an offensive rebound to Dowell, who scored from 14 feet. A Lindsey Dullard takeaway of a Stillman Valley dribble led to a Jones layup. Then Jones, cutting from the top of the key, intercepted a Stillman Valley pass for a possession that led, seconds later, to an in-bounds play that worked perfectly – a Josi Becker bounce pass to Jones for another layup.

It was 26-17 at the half, and by then it was clear that Morton had not only taken the lead, it also had beaten Stillman Valley the way it has beaten so many teams this season – by relentless pressure that wears them down physically and mentally. Perhaps only Peoria High and Rock Island, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, matched Morton’s speed and endurance this season. Only Rock Island, a 20-point winner, can say it handled everything Morton brought.

The Potters’ run continued the first two minutes of the third quarter, beginning with Jones making a jumper from the free throw line. Then came my favorite play of the night. From the top of the key, Jones side-armed a long bounce pass, maybe 20 feet, to the back-cutting Dowell, who took it on the run for a layup.

Starting to explain the pass, Jones first said, “I had to make up for the last game because of the double-dribble.” In the sectional championship game, Jones dribbled out front. Stopped, picked up the dribble. Then turned the other way, resuming the dribble en route to a layup. The referees saw nothing, one even stopping to ask a fan, “Did I miss a double-dribble?”

Jones saw Dowell making the back-cut to the rim.

“I knew I had to put a lot of spin under it,” she said of the pass.

Dowell said, “There was just a really small gap there, and the pass had to be really low, but Caylie’s pass was perfect.”

A minute later, Dowell scored again, this time a 3-pointer.

It was all done in 5 minutes and 22 seconds.

Morton won that third quarter, 9-2, and made 11 free throws in the fourth quarter to notify Stillman Valley that it had its chance and its chance was over.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Becker had 10, Jones and Bisping 8 each, Dullard 3, and Wharram 2.

One thing more. All this came the day after a locker room mystery. When the Potters showed up for a workout Sunday, they saw notes on a chalkboard.

“33-3 was good.”

(Good enough to win it all two seasons ago.)

“33-3 again was good.”

(A second championship.)

“34 and 2 is the new goal.”

(By winning out.)

“Ain’t nothin’ to it, just do it.”

I can’t reveal the writer’s identity, but his initials are Bill Davis.