Sometimes I will make a note just to be sportswriterly. (A guy’s gotta earn his Milk Duds.) Most often the notes are early observations that are rendered meaningless by the game’s movement. But in the tradition of blind-squirrels-finding-acorns, sometimes a guy gets it right. Sometimes he is even prophetic.

In the Potterdome this afternoon, I made five notes at the end of the first quarter of the Thanksgiving Tournament championship game. These notes . . .

“Fast pace”

“R forcing action”

“R dominating physically”

“R attacking at both ends”

“Hell-bent”

Those notes came at the end of the first quarter. The Morton High School Lady Potters led Richwoods, 12-11. That lead was a mirage, for in the early going Richwoods was the faster, bigger, stronger, more aggressive team. Unless the Potters did something quickly to change the game’s tenor – say they began a rainstorm of 3-pointers . . . say their full-court press stole every pass . . . say they got every rebound of shots Richwoods missed – unless they made those events happen, trouble was coming the Potter’s way..

Well.

Trouble arrived.

It was a 53-45 loss.

The defeat ended the Potters’ 16-game winning streak built over two seasons. They last lost 10 months and nine days ago, on January 16. They won their final 13 games of the 2016-17 season and had won their first three this year in the two days of their Thanksgiving tournament. (They beat St. Thomas More, 67-39, this morning.)

The loss was also the earliest in a season in four years. The Potters opened the 2014 season by winning 13 straight. The next year, 11 straight. Last season, 14.

As foreboding as the early going had been for the Potters, they yet managed a 23-all tie at halftime. They’d done that largely thanks to mistakes by Richwoods’ big people inside. The 6-footer Jaida McCloud and 6-1 Camryn Taylor owned the paint, but they clanged as many shots as they made.

That changed quickly in the new half. In the first 3 1/2 minutes of the third quarter, McCloud and Taylor each scored twice from point-blank range. Richwoods moved ahead, 31-25, and stayed there. When the Potters made a little run to get close at 35-33 with 3 minutes left in the third quarter, Richwoods again asserted its dominance inside, Taylor scoring on two put-back rebounds and a free throw.

Richwoods’ lead grew to 40-33 with 2:10 to play in the third quarter.

“Game over,” a note read.

‘Twas.

In that third quarter, Richwoods scored eight field goals at the rim – six layups, two put-backs. Morton had three such buckets. For the game, Richwoods had 17 layups and rebound baskets to Morton’s 9 (two of the put-backs done, somehow, by 5-foot-3 Josi Becker).

Richwoods came in with a simple defensive game plan against the Potters.

“We wanted to limit them to two 3-pointers a quarter,” coach Todd Hursey said.

They did better than that. They did it, as Hursey said, with athletes who are “big, long, and athletic.” Their constant, hyper-quick, hands-everywhere movements on defense gave the Potters no time to square up on 3’s and forced the ball to the corners as often as not. After making 13 3’s in the morning romp over St. Thomas More, the Potters managed only 5 for 25 attempts against Richwoods – and none, zero, nada when it mattered most, in the game’s last 11 minutes.

Morton’s coach, Bob Becker, cast the defeat as a learning lesson that showed his team what it needed to work on. To match a team such as Richwoods, it would help if each Potter grew six inches this week, added 20 pounds, and learned to jump over people for offensive rebounds. With those developments unlikely, the coach would settle for what’s possible: “We need to develop grit.” Meaning: his team lost too many contests for rebounds, lost too many contests for loose balls1, and lost too many opportunities to make a late-game comeback.

Josi Becker led Morton’s scoring with 13, Lindsey Dullard had 11, Tenley Dowell and Caylie Jones 8 apiece, Kassidy Shurman 3, and Courtney Jones 2.