I suspect the other seven Mid-Illini Conference teams soon will demand rules changes. They’ll ask that each of the Morton High School Lady Potters be required to strap on 10-pound ankle weights. Lindsey Dullard’s left hand will be tied behind her back. There’ll be a blindfold for Josi Becker. While shooting 3’s, Kassidy Shurman must balance a bowl of fruit on her head. Caylie Jones can go up for a rebound only after reciting the books of the Bible in reverse order. Tenley Dowell will wear combat boots and carry an umbrella.

Seems only fair.

The Potters are just too good for ordinary people.

They’re 15-1 for the season, 6-0 in the Mid-Illini. They’ve won the Class 3A state championship three straight years. They’re fresh off winning the State Farm Holiday Classic. On a 12-game winning streak, they’re ranked No. 1 in the state. In the last three seasons and this one, they are 115-9.

Tonight they ran off 24 straight points against Washington en route to a 53-26 victory. This came four days after they put a 47-0 run on East Peoria in an 84-11 romp. At halftime tonight they led Washington, 30-5, meaning that in their last six quarters they had outscored East Peoria and Washington 114-16. In two of those quarters, they threw 21-0 and 13-0 shutouts.

As measure of Morton’s dominance, consider that Washington may be the second-best team in the conference. It had lost once in six leagues games and was 12-3 overall. Yet the Morton defenders limited Washington to 2-of-22 shooting in the decisive first half. Meanwhile, Morton went on that 24-0 run – with six Potters scoring – that lasted 10 minutes and 37 seconds and propelled them to a 43-11 lead.

That run began late in the first quarter with a Dowell 3-pointer and two free throws. Dullard added two free throws and Peyton Dearing made a nifty layup with 5 seconds left in the quarter.

The 13-0 shutout in the second quarter began with a Josi Becker steal and driving layup. Shurman knocked down a three from the deep right corner. Dowell, slashing to the rim, finished with a spin move and easy layup. Caylie Jones followed with a mid-range jumper, Dowell added a free throw, and Josi Becker closed out the scoring with a 3 from the right arc.

It was 30-5 and, blessedly, it was halftime, meaning all those folks who might have nodded off during that half snapped awake to watch the Morton Heat 3d-and-4th grade team play a full-court scrimmage.

I’m not sure who was on which team, nor am I sure it mattered, but you had to love ‘em all: Ashlyn Ahlers, Abby Brooks, Brenyn Cowley, Breanna Farney, Caela Myers, Natalie Nichols, Harper Nightingale, Izzy Ripka, Paige Seike, and Abby VanMeenen.

From 30-5, the Potters moved the score to 43-11 and it was then, three rows up in the bleachers, that a newcomer to Potters basketball asked, “Why is he acting like they need to score a lot in a hurry to catch up?”

By that she meant: Why was Bob Becker, the Morton coach, shouting instructions to his players as if he were not satisfied with a 32-point lead midway in the third quarter?

The answer: “Because it’s not tonight’s game he’s worried about. It’s not tonight’s 32 minutes. He’s playing a long game. This is like practice for games to come in the regional and sectional.”

How good are the Potters? Good enough in January to be thinking of February.

Good enough, too, that they’re in people’s heads.

“I think it’s mostly mental,” a Washington senior, Josie Morgan, said. “They’re three-time state champions. I think that’s like a mental block for us.”

Occasionally, I pay attention to somebody on the other team. Tonight it was Morgan. She’s a gritty little player, a watch-charm guard, 5-foot-2, good with the ball, good shooter from outside and on drives, aggressive defender. Here’s how good I think she is. A foot taller, she’d be Tenley Dowell.

Anyway, Morgan made her first shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the right side that gave Washington a 3-2 lead 40 seconds into the game. After that, often guarded by the 6-footers Dowell and Dullard – they’re the human form of that alleged “mental block” – Morgan missed her next nine shots. She finished 3-for-12.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 22. Dullard had 8, Shurman and Caylie Jones had 6 each, Becker had 5, and Courtney Jones, Bridget Wood, and Dearing had 2 each.