Magically, it happened without him believing it had happened. Even when it had been made real, he couldn’t believe it was real. From hundreds of students came a chant, “THREE-PEAT . . . THREE-PEAT,” and even then Bob Becker walked in small circles, head down, as if searching for proof that, yes, it had happened. The Morton High School Lady Potters coach could be heard whispering, “You dream of just making it here . . .”

Here, Redbird Arena.

Here, where they play for the state championship.

Here, where today the Potters won a state championship for the third straight year.

Becker had coached the game of his life. When a coach was all that separated victory from defeat, he was a master. When it was over, when Morton had beaten Rochester, 43-37, for the Class 3A championship, Becker hugged each of his players, all 13, one by one. He had called them “smart” and “tough” and “resilient,” and they were all of that today when they most needed to be all of that.

Now the coach walked in small circles on the Redbird Arena court, no one with him, a man in a dreamer’s walk.

Close enough, you could hear him.

Whispering . . .

“Unbelievable.”

Might as well call this team The Unbelievables. All around Redbird, celebration. Becker found his wife, reprising an embrace they shared in March of 2015 when he whispered to her a rookie’s version of the words whispered by an old master today: “I can’t believe it.” Fathers wept with daughters. Benchwarmers danced with stars. As players and coaches stepped onto a small stage to accept medals, the students’ chant began anew, “THREE-PEAT … THREE-PEAT.” It’s not a Super Bowl and it’s not a World Series and it’s not LeBron defying gravity. It’s better. It’s 13 small-town girls making memories. They held high a big trophy that forever will bear their names: Brandi Bisping, Jacey Wharram, Josi Becker, Kassidy Shurman, Tenley Dowell, Caylie Jones, Lindsey Dullard, Courtney Jones, Olivia Remmert, Megan Gold, Bridget Wood, Clarie Kraft, Maddy Becker.

They’ll come home to Morton today for a parade that begins at the Farm & Fleet store and winds it way through town to the high school. At 1 o’clock there’ll be a public reception for the team at the Potterdome. At such a reception a year ago, assistant coach Bill Davis first said aloud, on the public address system for all to hear, the word that became this team’s goal: “Threeeeeeee!”

How bold a goal that was, and how boldly the Potters rose to it – even in today’s game, or, I should say, especially in today’s game. Rochester was strong, quick, and experienced. It was good at both ends, the best 3A team the Potters played all season. Morton led at halftime, 16-15, but had been unimpressive.

During halftime warmups, Becker called Brandi Bisping over. He wanted to know what his senior all-stater thought of his locker-room decision to go a trapping 1-3-1 zone press. “If the leader buys in, everybody buys in,” Becker said. Bisping had bought in immediately. “It was a good idea,” she said, “to give Rochester something they hadn’t seen.”

Quickly, Caylie Jones made the decision work. Her diving steal of a Rochester dribble gave Morton a jump-ball possession that Jones herself cashed in with a 17-foot jumper. Then, anticipating a lazy Rochester pass, Jones stole the floating thing to set up a Tenley Dowell 3.

Morton’s lead was four points, 21-17 – but, as suddenly as it was built, it was lost. Rochester went on an 8-0 run in 86 seconds. It led 25-21.

At that point, I scribbled a sentence on the Potters’ side of my notebook and put an asterisk by it as reminder of a moment that can turn a game . . .

“*How tough are they?”

The Potters had fought to take a 4-point lead, then lost it in half the time it took to build it. Some teams might find that dispiriting. For some it could be killing. I’d seen the Potters be tough all season, and I’d heard Becker proclaim their heart and resiliency and “burning desire to succeed,” and I’d seen him write on his coach’s whiteboard a pre-game reminder: “TOUGHNESS.” But that was against inferior opposition. This was against the best team they’d played all season with the state championship at stake.

So how tough are these Potters, really?

Unbelievably tough.

They scored the game’s next 12 points.

They took the battle to Rochester. They dared to shoot 3’s. Brandi Bisping moved outside and put up her first long one of the game. She made it. “Nobody came out on me, so I shot,” she said. Thirty-two seconds later, she did it again. Bold now and running hot, the Potters dared to be physical. We saw Bisping pumping both fists in celebration while flat on the floor after drawing a charge. Out of their press, the Potters stole the ball, forced bad passes, and drove Rochester to distraction. By the time another Dowell 3 opened the fourth quarter and gave the Potters a 33-25 lead, the Morton students had recognized what was happening. They chanted, “I BELIEVE WE WILL WIN . . . I BELIEVE WE WILL WIN.”

A couple minutes later, I made another asterisked note . . .

“*Becker manage the game?”

Hah. He hadn’t won 414 games in 18 years by being a potted plant on the bench. Before Becker, Morton girls basketball was nothing special. Now, in his 18th season, it is extraordinary. His teams have won 415 games. In the last three years, Morton has gone 33-3, 33-3, and 34-2. Do the math: it’s 100 victories, 8 defeats. Following the Potters’ 56-41 semifinal victory on Friday, a Chicago Tribune headline reported that Chicago Simeon had fallen to “Mighty Morton.”

Here’s how Becker managed the game when it most needed management . . .

Morton’s lead was 35-30 with 4:07 to play when Becker began a series of situational substitutions. When he needed ball-handlers, he sent in Lindsey Dullard and Jones. Defense, he sent in Kassidy Shurman (against a 3-point shooter who didn’t scored on her) and Jacey Wharram (against a post who got one shot, scoring only down 7 with 14 seconds to play).

Ten times in the last four minutes, Becker made those platoon substitutions. Rochester moved to within 36-33 but never closer.

Bisping led Morton’s scoring with 17 (and 11 rebounds). Dowell had 12, Dullard and Jones 5 apiece, Josi Becker 3, and Wharram 2.

And now that these 13 girls have done what no small-town girls had ever done, the question becomes . . .

“Can you win it again next year?” I asked the sophomore Tenley Dowell, who raised her chin a click, smiled, and said, “Yeah!”