I’m trying to be a grown-up here. But, really. The Morton High School Lady Potters defeated Peoria High this afternoon, 59-51, in Galesburg’s Martin Luther King Winter Classic tournament. For a half and more, it was a basketball game. After that, with Peoria’s desperate defenders clawing and scratching, the game devolved into … oh, I dunno … let’s call it a mash-up of basketball, karate, jiu jitsu, and taekwando, whatever taekwando is.

The keep-it-in-perspective response to such a game would be to say the Potters won their 17th straight game and raised their season record to 20-1 by beating a strong team on its home court before a partisan crowd. The level-headed response would be to say the Potters will learn from the experience and put it to good use in trying to win a fourth straight state championship. A fair and balanced commentator might even praise Peoria for its speed, its grit, its determination, and its commitment, perhaps unstated but real, to the concept of asymmetric warfare.

That would be the grown-up way to go.

But I need to rant.

I hate clawing, scratching defenders. By clawing and scratching, I mean clawing and scratching. This is not a sportswriterly analogy. I mean clawing with one’s hands and scratching with one’s hands. Great defense is beautiful. Clawing, scratching defense is ugly. The only thing uglier is a referee who decides there’s so much clawing and scratching going on that if he started calling fouls, he’d never get home for dinner, so he swallows his whistle rather than interrupt the mayhem. This game had three whistle-swallowers. With a minute to play, Peoria had been called for eight second-half fouls. The zebras passed on the other 50.

I feel some better.

Morton led, 41-15, at 5:41 of the third quarter. That’s when Peoria’s press went into frenzy mode. They trapped ball-handlers, they clawed at the ball whenever it stopped in a Potter’s hands, and they scratched it loose often enough to cut Morton’s lead to 10 points, 50-40, with 5:01 to play. In little more than a quarter’s time, they had done to Morton what Morton so often has done to others. They ran off 25 points to the Potters’ 9.

I suppose Peoria High people liked the 25-9 rally. I hated it. I hated it because it was chaos. It was throw the thing against the glass and see what happens in the no-holds-barred scrum under the board. It was chop at somebody’s arms and hope the ball falls loose and the referees don’t see it. It’s what you do if you have no real weapons and the other guy has bombs. You attack unconventionally. You do things nobody expects done. You fight from the shadows. You become guerillas fighters. It’s asymmetrical warfare.

Peoria came in with a 16-6 record. It has big, strong, quick, athletic players, the kind that have bedeviled Morton in exactly the same way the last three years. So, sure, they had a chance today against Morton. But the three-time state champions played superbly for a half and three minutes into the third quarter. It was 15-8 after a quarfter and 33-13 at the half. That margin was built mainly on a 19-3 run in almost 8 minutes that featured three consecutive Josi Becker layups on full-court drives through Peoria’s press. The lead reached 41-15 on eight straight points early in the third quarter – on 3’s by Josi Becker and Kassidy Shurman, and a 15-footer by Lindsey Dullard.

Whatever Peoria decided in a timeout there, worked. In little more than a minute, the Lions scored eight straight points. Then came another of the game’s signature ugly moments.

A Peoria defender, flying toward Josi Becker, struck her across the head, perhaps with a hand, perhaps an elbow. The blow caused Becker to touch her face, as if to be sure all the parts were still there. From a row high in the Morton fans’ section, into the silence of no-whistle-this-time-either, someone shouted, “They tore her HEAD off!” Wasn’t me, but as they say in Congress, I am proud to associate myself with my colleague’s remarks.

Throughout the game’s last 13 minutes, when Peoria outscored Morton, 36-18, its press frazzled the Potters’ ball-handlers and its indefatigable offensive rebounders kept the ball bouncing toward the rim. (Twelve of Peoria’s 14 second-half baskets came in the paint, 4 on put-back rebounds.) Suddenly, the Potters’ lead was only 50-40.

But whatever doubts Morton might have let creep in were ushered out in the next minute. The Potters made two plays that distinguish good basketball teams from chaotic basketball teams.

First, Caylie Jones drew a charge (her second of the game) at the Peoria end that gave the Potters possession with 4:20 to play. Then Tenley Dowell, slashing to the basket, put up a left-handed shot that kissed the board gently and fell in. While she avoided all Peoria tacklers this time, she nevertheless was fouled. The free throw made it 53-40 with 3:51 to play. I made a note. “Safe now,” for the next time Morton loses a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter will be the first time in my memory.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 15 points. (Incidentally, her fourth point of the night gave her 1,000 for her career. The junior will be honored at the Potters’ next home game, Tuesday, Jan. 23.) Josi Becker scored 13, Shurman and Caylie Jones had 8 each, Courtney Jones 6, Dullard 4, Maddy Becker 3, and Megan Gold 2.