If you had to pick a moment, it’s when Katie Brock, the littlest Potter, threw herself onto a loose ball at midcourt.

Galesburg came to the Potterdome all puffed up, losers only twice in 22 games and ranked #4 in the state. For the Potters, this game was big. Win it, you’re somebody. Lose it, you wonder who you are.

And there was little Katie Brock throwing herself under a Galesburg player who made the mistake of getting careless with the ball in Katie’s quicksilver presence. She’s 5-foot-1, a junior who comes off the bench, a pest playing defense and a trusted ball-handler. She’s happy with maybe one shot a month.

Tonight, after creating and chasing down that loose ball, Katie rolled onto her back at midcourt and somehow shuffled the ball over her head to – things happen fast around Katie – let’s say she got the rock to Izzy Hutchinson, who sprinted downcourt and passed to . . .

Katie, who . . .

Had clambered up from the floor and materialized at the top of the key.

There, as Galesburg had done all night, they chose to leave her alone. They clogged the lane against Morton’s driving scorers, playing 5 against 4. That was a mistake that Katie had foreseen.

“They hadn’t guarded me all night,” she said. “I had decided that the next time I got the ball in that spot, I was going to pull up and shoot it. And I was at the exact spot.”

She took a step forward. Nobody moved toward her. Another step. Still, Galesburg watched because they figured she would not drive for a layup. A Katie Brock standing on a Katie Brock’s shoulders might touch the rim. She is bright enough to know she does not mix well with the big girls in the paint.

Dared to shoot, Katie popped it in from 12 feet. To judge by the Potters bench people leaping in celebration, it could have been from 50 feet, only her third or fourth field goal of the season. (“I’ve got maybe 10 points all season. That’s not my thing.”)

The beauty of it was, Katie's bucket was a killer. With 2:35 left in the third quarter, it gave the Potters their biggest lead, 39-22, and this one was over.

I won’t call it an upset. Morton was #6 in the latest Class 3A poll with a 17-5 record that included victories over everyone they were expected to beat and losses only to teams with state-championship aspirations – except for last week’s loss at Washington, and that one became a turning point for the Potters.

“Since the Washington game,” coach Bob Becker said of a dispiriting 45-34 defeat, “we had a week of practices where we got better every day. It’s exciting to see.”

They were so much better tonight that Galesburg led only once, and only briefly before the Potters asserted themselves in arguably their best beginning-to-end, full-court performance of the season. In six minutes of the second and third quarters, the Potters went on a 21-4 run to move ahead 33-18.

Ellie VanMeenen scored nine of the 21 (two 3’s in there). Izzy Hutchinson’s four points included a mid-court steal and breakaway layup. Addy Engel’s five came with two slashing drives, the prettiest finished high off the glass. Abby VanMeenen’s three included another put-back of the kind she has shown of late. The freshman said, “We’re starting to show who we really are.”

Ellie VanMeenen led Morton’s scoring with 16, and sister Abby had 10, causing Ellie, a junior, to say, “She’s finally figured out she’s 6 feet tall.” Engel had 10, Hutchinson 6, Paige Selke 2, and Brock those sweet 2.