To see the bare score, 62-44, is to know nothing about the way the Morton High School Lady Potters defeated Canton tonight. To see an 18-point victory margin is to imagine a cakewalk. It’s to think the three-time state champions tossed their warmups onto the Alice Ingersoll court and the Canton girls fainted at the fearsome sight of the candy-striped laundry. For sure, during such a romp, the Morton coach, Bob Becker, would never need to raise his voice.

So who was that man standing in front of the Lady Potters bench? That gentleman casting a stern gaze on his players? That fellow with tendrils of smoke curling from his ears? Every coach has a burst-into-flames point, somewhere near 1020 degrees Fahrenheit, and this poor guy’s thermometer was at 911 and rising.

Well, yes. ‘Twas Bob Becker. It says here he had good reason to go hot under the collar. His team was blowing a big lead. And folks in the third row behind his bench heard the coach ask those players on the bench – they were his team’s stars – one question.

“Are you ready to play?” he said.

The inference, of course, was that they were on the bench because they had not played all night. They certainly played below their standards, let alone their expectations. Becker expects his team to dominate the first three minutes of any third quarter. Tonight those minutes belonged to Canton, and it seemed possible that the Little Giants, undefeated in nine games and playing before a raucous home crowd, might win this one.

When Becker asked that question, his team led 40-34. Twice it had frittered away big leads. His stars nodded yes, they were ready.

“Then prove it,” Becker said.

And he said it again, only this time in capital letters, “PROVE IT.”

Before reporting what they did given that ultimatum, I should say they had a chance to PROVE IT only because bench-warmers had come to the rescxue earlier.
It was 32-31 three minutes into the third quarter when Becker decided he’d seen enough of his starting five. He looked down his bench and sent every breathing soul into the game.

Well, not everybody. But he sent in three players who had not yet been in the game. He sent in Maddy Becker, Peyton Dearing, and Megan Gold.

First time she touched the ball, Maddy Becker threw in a 3-pointer from the right side. (In the jayvee game, the sophomore guard had scored 29 points.) After Gold forced a turnover, Becker made another 3, this one from the deep left corner. A fast- break layup by Lindsey Dullard made it 40-31. In one minute and 17 seconds, the Potters had outscored Canton, 8-0.

“Our bench gave us a big lift tonight,” Becker, the coach, said later. By game’s end, all 14 Potters had played, nine had scored and five had divvied up the team’s 10 3’s. Morton’s bench scored 16 points tonight.

So it was 40-34, Morton leading, when Becker sent his stars back into the game to prove they had come to play.

Prove it, they did. They went on a 19-3 run that produced a 59-37 lead with 4:04 to play.

It went like this:

The starters had been back in the game 13 seconds – 13 seconds! – when Josi Becker made a 3. An amazing in-the-paint pass from Caylie Jones then created a Tenley Dowell layup. With three seconds left in the third quarter, Josi Becker made another 3.

Fourth quarter: a Josi Becker layup, a Dowell 3, a Caylie Jones 17-footer, two free throws by Dowell and two more by Maddy Becker.

By then, Canton had capitulated. Its coach, Jessica Thum, removed her starters when it was 57-37. She later denied she did it because her players were exhausted (though they were) or because the game was out of reach (though it was) “I put in kids who usually play,” she said, although they had played only a few minutes tonight.

I asked her what happened to her team when it had moved within a point at 32-31 with 12 minutes to play, only to lose the rest of the way 30-13.

“We abandoned our game plan,” Thum said.

Canton’s game plan seemed simple. Put up 3-pointers and/or drive madly at the rim and hope to luck something in. At peak strength, that plan worked for Canton. Second half, ground to tremblings by Morton’s constant pressure at both ends, Canton’s helter-skelter dashes at the hoop became exercises in failure.

Thum was undismayed. As we sat in the bleachers afterwards, she said something that sounded like, “It’ll be a different outcome next time.”

I said, “What?”

“You can quote me,” she said. “It’ll be a different outcome next time.”

Playing unevenly, Morton had won on the road by 18 over a previously-undefeated team. So, yes, I guess the outcome could be different the next time. Morton might win by 25.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Josi Becker had 16, Maddy Becker 8, Caylie Jones 6, and Dullard 4. Dearing, Kassidy Shurman and Courtney Jones had 3 apiece, Kathryn Reiman had 2.