I once wrote a football game story in which I didn’t tell who won until the 11th fat paragraph. I was about to commit that literary crime again here. Tempted by one play that provoked a touch of amusement, I began typing away on it.

Then stopped.

C’mon, kid, tell who won.

Morton 55, Normal Community 49.

Morton 76, Champaign Central 29.

The Morton High School Lady Potters, three-times-running Class 3A state champions, began the 2017-18 season with victories on the first day of their Thanksgiving Tournament in the Potterdome. They play again Saturday morning at 11:45 against St. Thomas More, then play Richwoods at 5 in a game almost certainly for the round-robin championship.

Now, about that play . . .

Ever get into the middle of doing something wonderfully graceful that you’ve done a hundred times and on the 101st time you remember something . . . like, Oh, no, I forgot to send Aunt Mabel a get-well card . . . and right when you’re thinking about poor Aunt Mabel, you step in the dog dish, flip your scrambled eggs off the ceiling, and ker-rash on your keester? (Kids, ask grandma, she’ll tell you about your keester.)

Which brings me to Kassidy Shurman, who is a wonderfully graceful little senior guard for the Lady Potters. She is four times a state champion, first in the seventh grade, three times in high school.

She has the ball.

She is driving to her left.

She sees someone open, Courtney Jones, she thinks.

Being a nifty little ball-handler, Kass will slip the ball past a Champaign Central defender. She’s done this thing to bamboozled defenders a hundred times. Nothing to it. Could do it blindfolded.

Except this is the 101st time.

As she picks up her dribble and is about to make a simple bounce pass, Shurman realizes – no, no, she doesn’t have an Aunt Mabel — she realizes that if she passes now, it won’t work. She realizes she needs to take another dribble to close the distance.

But another dribble would be a double-dribble violation, so she can’t do that, and she can’t make the pass, and what she does is she takes an extra step or two, and while she didn’t step on a dog dish at any point in this fancy dance, and didn’t fall on her keester, she is called for a walking violation.

Well, what’s a girl to do in a situation like this?

“I had to laugh,” Kassidy Shurman said, which she did on the court and did again reliving the moment for a guy whose German grandmother told him long ago, “David, I’m going to tan your little keester.”

Of course Shurman had to laugh, for in fewer than four minutes the Potters had built an 18-1 lead over Champaign Central that would grow to 48-10 at halftime. It was 71-22 after three quarters. Here’s about all the more you need to know about this game . . .

The Potters played 13 people, 12 scored (Shurman had seven) and 12 got rebounds. Near game’s end I tapped an old friend on the shoulder, one row down from me in the bleachers, asking if she was ready to play because she might be able to score in this game.

“They called us ‘the 49ers,’” Joyce Domnick said.

Which meant?

“We graduated in 1949,” she said.

She still might’ve got a rebound.

If that game was the day’s comic relief, the Potters’ opener against Normal Community was high drama. It was easily the best 3A game you’re likely to see in November. It would be no surprise to see both teams go deep into the post-season.

That said, it’s noteworthy that Morton never trailed. It led at halftime only 25-20, but began the third quarter on a 14-3 run. Tenley Dowell scored on a driving layup, then added four free throws before Josi Becker threw in a 3-pointer, Caylie Jones finished a fast break layup, and Dowell hit a 3-pointer.

At 39-23, Morton seemed to have the game in hand.

It still led by 15 early in the fourth quarter. But as well as the Potters had played, they could not put away a quick, skilled Normal Community team.

Their 44-29 lead dwindled to 51-49 with 2:14 to play – meaning Normal Community had outscored the state champs 20-7 in 5 ½ minutes. Of those 20 points, 12 came from sophomore guard Maya Wong, whose two 3-pointers in the run gave her five for the day. (And five 3’s, it says here, is not likely to happen to the Potters again this season.)

By then running a delay offense to slow Normal’s momentum, Morton controlled the game’s last minutes. Dowell’s free throws – two with 27 seconds to play, and two more with four seconds left – closed the door.

Dowell, scoring from the arc and on slashing drives, led Morton with 26 points, 10-for-10 on free throws. Josi Becker was the only other Potter in double figures with 13. Sophomore Lindsey Dullard had five points in the first three minutes and none thereafter, yet was sensational throughout with nine rebounds and a defensive presence that accounted for five blocked shots and a series of deflections in full-court pressure and against Normal’s set offense.

The Potters’ game Saturday afternoon against Richwoods will be a strong test of another kind. Normal Community came with ball-handling skills and shooting. Richwoods comes with size, speed, and rebounding.

So cancel your Saturday afternoon plans.

Get to the Potterdome.

Joyce will be there, ready if needed.