When I leave the house, it’s my habit to leave the TV on for Casey the cat. Maybe she will learn to cook. Tonight, when I walked in after the Potters’ game, what’s the first thing I see on the TV?

I already have suffered in seeing the poor Potters go through a very bad, let’s-flush-it night. Then my TV delivers an ensemble cast singing and dancing in a bizarre show-biz production number advertising a medicine for, I think, glucose control.

Better to tell Casey about the game.

Let’s start with turnovers. “We turned the ball over and over and over,” the Potters’ coach, Bob Becker, said. “It was our ‘turnover offense.’” He was more than disappointed. He was one click from despondent.

I could mention rebounding. “How many times did Washington miss a free throw,” the coach said, “and get the rebound?” He said it with not one question mark, but three, four or five. “How many times?????” He was more than irritated. He was one click from agitated.

Free throws? “Three for 12 tonight,” Becker said. His teams once made 75 percent of their free throws for the season. No reasons not to, nobody’s got a hand in your face. Put a blindfold on Chandler Ryan, she’d make 50 straight. Brandi Bisping would freakin’ drop-kick ‘em in. They won four state championships that way. “If I’m a kid,” Becker said, “I go to the gym in the morning and I find a way to make ‘em.” He was more than puzzled. He was one click from bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.

Becker liked what he saw in Washington. “They were tougher, grittier, feistier,” he said. It should be noted as well that Washington started not one sophomore, not two or three, not even four. They won a game for the Mid-Illini Conference lead with five sophomore starters. “Tough little scrappers,” Becker called them.

The Potters had one good stretch tonight. Down nine early in the third quarter, they went on a 9-1 run. Addy Engel began it with a layup at 3:32 of the third quarter. Ellie VanMeenen banked in a 3 (it still counted). Then Paige Selke’s 3 and an Engel free throw moved Morton within one at 25-24 late in the quarter.

After that, nothing. After that, the way good teams do it, Washington won going away. In the game’s last nine minutes, they outscored Morton, 20-10.

The killing shots were three 3-pointers by Washington’s star, Avery Tibbs, identified by Becker to his defenders as “a deadly, deadly shooter.” And yet, left mostly undefended in the deep left corner, she made three straight 3’s to give Washington a 41-27 lead with 2:01 to play. She had five 3’s tonight, 18 points (and 11 rebounds).

Morton is now 15-5 for the season, 6-1 in the Mid-Illini. Washington is 13-4, 6-0.

“What we have to decide now,” Becker said, “is what we’re going to do tomorrow to fix what’s wrong.”

The coach and his Potters may be undecided about what’s next. Not me. At this moment, I'm saying, Casey, you and me, let’s have a beer.

Addy Engel led Morton’s scoring with 12. Anja Ruxlow had 7, Ellie VanMeenen 6, Izzy Hutchinson 6, Paige Selke 3.