Morton Thanksgiving Classic

Game 1 – Morton vs. Normal Community

Talk about baptism by fire for your first game of the season.  The Morton Lady Potters opened the 2017-18 season facing, arguably, one of the most talented teams they will face all season, in the  Normal Community Lady Iron.  Normal Community is very talented and came into the game 4-0, having won the Bloomington/Normal Intercity Championship for the first time in 14 years.  They have three underclassmen that already have D1 offers in Maya Wong (soph), Kylee Schneringer (soph) and Abby Feit (Junior).  Athletic and long and can shoot the ball with the best of them.  As well as a bevy of experienced seniors.

 

Luckily the Morton Lady Potters have some talented players of their own, and a Hall of Fame coach to go with them.  On this day, the Morton Lady Potters were the better team, winning the game 55-49.  The Lady Potters outplayed the Lady Iron through 3 quarters, more than matching Normal with their own high octane offense.  Lindsey Dullard, Tenley Dowell and Josi Becker took turns shredding the Lady Iron defense and the rest of the team made things tough on Normal throughout the game.

Morton pulled out to a 14 point lead to end the 3rd quarter, but Normal’s superstar (Maya Wong) came alive in the 4th quarter bringing her team back to within 2 points (49-47) late in the game.  Morton took care of the ball and made their free throws though to close out the game.  It was a very good game to start the season for the Lady Potters.

 

 

Game 2 – Morton vs. Champaign Central

In their second game of the season, Morton unleashed their offensive and defensive fury, on their guests from Champaign, from the opening tip.  Morton outmatched Champaign Central at every position and cruised to a 76-29 game.  Most of the people sitting around me thought the Lady Potters could have scored twice as many points in this game if Coach Becker had wanted to keep his foot on the throttle, but instead he took the opportunity to get his less experienced players major minutes.  As the game was in hand about 3 minutes into the game, the starters played together sparingly from the second quarter on.

Morton was impressive in this blowout win and looked like they had used the last three weeks of practice time very well.  They will need to get their rest tonight though and be their best for Saturday as they will face two more teams including the Richwoods Lady Knights, that also looked good today in taking down Normal Community by 9 points.  Richwoods is very talented, tall and quick with a predominantly Junior lineup.  They have three D1 prospects as well and will give Morton a good opportunity to see where they are right now as a team.  Morton faces Richwoods at 5pm on Saturday night.