Baby, cold today. Nine degrees and headed lower. Frozen snow covered the heartland’s frozen earth. It was time to light up the fireplace and stir up a hot toddy, a sweet elixir known in our old Georgia homeplace as “mama’s southern cough syrup.”

Instead, the hardiest of us ventured into the arctic air to the Potterdome where we were rewarded for our bravery in the first three minutes of a game that might suggest how the Lady Potters would rebound from a bad loss at Washington and play in these last three weeks of the regular season.

In those three minutes against a 15-5 team coming off an eight-game winning streak, Morton sprinted to an 11-4 lead built on five buckets, one by each starter, the Potters doing basketball the way good teams do it by leaving the opponents wondering what’s going to happen next.

The Potters scored about every 30 seconds, this way: Addy Engel on a driving layup off the opening tip … Paige Selke (who delivered Milk Duds to the starving artist reporter) scored at the rim off a pass from the perimeter … Ellie VanMeenen a rhythm 3-pointer from the left side ... Izzy Hutchinson one of her sneaky little twisting kisses off the glass … and Ellie’s little (bigger) sister, Abby, a 6-foot freshman, doing what she’s going to be doing for a long time to come, grabbing a rebound and putting it back where it belonged.

“This one was fun,” the Potters coach, Bob Becker, said.

He counted the ways everything worked.

“Complete domination rebounding.”

“Gritty, tough, determined defensive plays.”

“Hold them to one-and-done, and then just go have a party at the offensive end.”

It was 30-16 at halftime, 35-25 after three quarters, and the Potters’ party became a laugher in the fourth quarter. Canton scored in the first 30 seconds and did not score again until it lucked in a 3 at the buzzer. Meanwhile, this happened, a 14-0 killing run.

Ellie VanMeenen two free throws … Engel an off-hand hook shot of a layup …little-bigger sister Abby a layup… Ellie a 3 … Abby a 3 of her own from the top of the key … Abby a mid-range beauty ... and from 35-27, the Potters were suddenly up 49-27.

A factoid: Canton scored 14 points in the second half, the VanMeenens scored 13.

“We were playing freely on offense,” Ellie said, “flowing right to our spots, everybody on the same page, talking, communicating.” As for the Sister Act, she said, “This season is really the first time we’ve played together, on travel teams or anything. I think it’s fun.” A smile here. “She might not think so.”

Let's ask.

“Yes,” Abby said, “it’s really fun getting to play with her. I‘ve always looked up to her.”

Morton, which had won at Canton 52-43 in December, is now 16-5 for the season, 7-1 in the Mid-Ilini. Canton is 15-6, 5-3.

Then, alas, it was time to get back into the great outdoors. From my place in the middle of nowhere, I had driven to the Potterdome on 150. That long, sweeping curve at Deer Creek was invisible under snow swirling off bare farmland. At the Dee-Mac intersection, I resumed breathing.

Becker, ever considerate, told me to drive safely going home.

“I could become a headline,” I said. “Like, ‘Old Sportswriter Survives Night in a Ditch by Eating Milk Duds.’”

“If you need breakfast out there,” the coach said, “I can give you a Snickers.”

It was -1 when I pulled into the garage. Casey the cat was waiting at the door. She, too, wanted a treat.

Ellie VanMeenen led Morton’s scoring with 16 (a 3-pointer in every quarter). Addy Engel had 11, Abby VanMeenen 9, Paige Selke 4, Anja Ruxlow 3, Izzy Hutchinson 2, Katie Brock 2, Julia Laufenberg 2.