Two years ago, on January 22, 2016, in one of those cosmic mysteries that make life interesting, the East Peoria High School girls basketball team defeated Morton’s Lady Potters, 37-35. Since that night, the teams have met four times and Morton has won all four games — by scores of 90-33, 80-33, 84-11, and, tonight, 74-21.

I dunno, y’think the Potters remember two years ago?

Maybe they remember a night three years ago. They won, 54-34, despite the East Peorians committing a dozen fouls so flagrantly that Morton would have been justified in walking off the court before someone was injured.

For high school players those events are likely forgotten. Homecomings and proms, driver’s licenses and first dates, SAT’s and college essays – life comes at teenagers in a hurry.

But old folks remember.

A friend told me there’s one thing she likes about East Peoria.

“Leaving,” she said.

Another friend, a Peorian, said he wouldn’t mind if East Peoria slipped into the Illinois River and bobbed up around Goofy Ridge or Havana.

“No,” I said. My mother lived and fished at Goofy Ridge. It deserves better.

Wait. Let’s be fair. … A cute server at the Bob Evans restaurant once slipped me two extra slices of that great banana nut bread. . . . At Fon du Lac golf course this summer, I made a birdie. … The Farmdale Reservoir – beautiful hiking trails.

Enough of that. Have you ever tried to exit off westbound I- 74 and get down to Washington Street on your way to East Peoria High School? You can be run over by a tractor-trailer on the three or four streets curling into each other like spaghetti at Avanti’s. Then you come to a stop light. There’s a sign: DO NOT STOP ON TRACKS. Because you can get run over by a train.

Anyway, no. There has been no payback at work. Morton’s coach, Bob Becker, has used the games virtually as practice sessions, playing his starters a quarter and a half, giving time to every player on the roster.

No payback – but, it says here, plenty of karma. However good the East Peorians were on that inexplicable night two years ago, they have been that bad since. Any five of the 14 Morton players could have won tonight’s game. It was 19-0 before East Peoria scored. It was 31-2 before East Peoria scored again. It was 52-9 before East Peoria got into double figures.

The Potters dominated the game the way they dominated the team’s first meeting. They scored from everywhere in every way, on 8 3-pointers, on a dozen breakaways, on a dozen second-chance buckets. When their merciless defenders weren’t baiting the East Peorians into foolish passes, they just took the ball from them and ran the other way. It’s what three-time state champions on an 18-game winning streak, with a 21-1 season record, do to teams that come in 1-20.

The game’s only distinguishing moment came with 4:12 left in the second quarter. That’s when Maddy Becker was told she couldn’t play, that her uniform wasn’t legal.

Because her uniform shorts are so long they reach her knees, Becker, a sophomore, had done what many high school girls do. She rolled her waist band to bring the shorts up. That’s one of the silly no-no’s in Illinois girls basketball. So a referee, spotting the terrible infraction immediately, told Becker she couldn’t come into the game. The referee also ruled out another Potters sub, Olivia Remmert, who, like Becker, had committed the same fashion faux pas.

“We didn’t turn the waist bands ‘out,’ because that would show the drawstring, so we roll them ‘in,’” Remmert said. Then the girls arrange their jerseys so a couple inches hang loose and hide the rolled-in waist band. But there was no hiding on this night, what with the eagle-eyed zebra ruling both Becker and Remmert out of the game.

How’d Becker feel about it?

“Angry,” she said.

Both Becker and Remmert returned in the second half. Their shorts were longer.

Tenley Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Josi Becker had 15. Caylie Jones had 8, Lindsey Dullard 6, Maddy Becker and Kathryn Reiman 5 each. Megan Gold and Courtney Jones had 4, Bridget Wood and Kassidy Shurman 3 each, Petyon Dearing and Claire Kraft 2 each.