Imagine Bob Becker, the Lady Potters coach, as a movie-thriller Tom Cruise save-the-world guy. He has found the mega-atomic bomb. He must defuse it. Seconds are draining away . . . 10 9 8 . . . Should he clip the red wire or the black one? . . . 7 6 5 . . . ohmigod, Bob, which wire?

This one was kinda like that.

You dare not look away, you might miss a crisis. Blinking is bad because five things can happen before you get your eyelashes untangled. Breathe? You’re thinking of breathing? Now? Who breathes during this? This was a defensive classic, every possession contested, every rebound a hand-to-hand war, every possession a precious gem, even a diamond to be cut into its most valuable shape, a memory.

With the regional championship as reward for victory, Morton never trailed and yet was never certain to win. Up by 13 early in the third quarter, the Potters were up only seven with two minutes to play. From there anything could happen. If the hero clips the red wire, maybe everything goes ker-BOOM! Like this . . .

The Becker/Cruise guy was off the bench. Off the bench means he’s coaching his hind end off. In his 25th season as the Potters’ action hero, he’s on the sidelines raising his right arm high. He’s raising one finger and maybe he’s shouting, “ONE,” though who could hear anything in Galesburg’s gym rocking with raucous fans used to winning big games.

He’s signaling 1, 1, repeating it, 1, meaning the Potters were to be patient, take their ever-loving time to get a shot. They should make it a good one because they were up 26-15 in the last minute of the third quarter. Maybe it was time to clip the black wire, then go step on the Galesburgians’ throats.

Patience? Instead, the Potters’ Paige Selke, a freshman, does a freshman thing. From the left side, after maybe five or six seconds of patience, she throws up a 3-point try. It clangs off the iron. It causes Becker to drop his hands. He dropped them eloquently. His body language said, “Dear, dear Paige, tell me, please, WHAT in the WORLD was THAT?”

So Galesburg goes down, scores three points, and they’re alive going into the fourth quarter, 26-18, when . . .

It was 28-22, and that tick-tick-ticking bomb is still a thing . . . 4 3 2 . . . and Becker was coaching like a kid . . . “It never gets old winning regionals,” he would say later, this being his teams’ eighth title in 10 years . . . and he saw that freshman, dear, dear Paige, driving down the right side of the lane.

She wasn’t hiding from that 3-point mistake. “Great players have the moxie to make the next play,” Becker said. With 5:20 to play in the biggest game of her young life, the 5-foot-10 moxieful (a new word!) Potter moved through Galesburg’s packed-in-the-paint defense with a veteran’s poise and power for a layup and a 30-22 lead.

Thirty-three seconds later came the Potters’ Izzy Hutchinson to save the world. She’s a 5-foot-8 senior who once again was everywhere all at once, this time for the full 32 minutes of high-anxiety frenzy. Here she came to kiss a shot off the glass, the ball put up softly, rolling onto the rim, rolling around it, rolling slowly, curling, teasing us, and Izzy said . . .

“I watched it and thought, uh-oh . . .” She laughed at the way the ball was swirling around the rim. “Like in a toilet bowl,” she said.

Or, to use a more beautiful image, it reminded some of us of the white ball on a roulette wheel spinning round and round until it slows enough to fall, blessedly, into a black hole paying a million bucks.

From 32-22 down with 4:47 to play, Galesburg never got closer than seven and did not score in the last two minutes as Morton finished on a 5-0 run, three Hutchinson free throws and two by Selke.

Morton won with toughness, grit, and relentlessly persistent defense. (Potters shot 50% to the losers’ 20%; forced outside, Galesburg was 4-for-25 on 3’s; its 29 points were four under its previous seasons's low of 33, and its two best scorers who combined for 57 points in a semifinal managed only 13 tonight.)

The game's tone was set early with two runs by the Potters. They went 7-0 in the second quarter, moving ahead, 15-8. In the third, a 9-0 move put them up, 26-13. Each starter contributed in those runs. Abby VanMeenen had 5 points, Hutchinson and Addy Engel 4 each, Ellie V 2, Selke the other.

That scoring balance is symbolic of the team Becker has shaped. “Awesome,” the coach said. “An outstanding, talented group of kids, competitive, and they truly love each other.”

Ranked #2 in Class 3A, the Potters won their 10th straight game and 21st of their last 23. They’re 25-5 overall. They move on to next Tuesday’s sectional at East Peoria where they’ll meet friend/rival Washington, with whom they have split a pair of games this season.

Galesburg, #6 in the most recent AP poll, finished its season 26-7.

Morton’s scoring tonight: Hutchinson 15 (with game-high 8 rebounds), Selke 11, Engel 8 (also 8 rebounds) Abby V 5, Ellie V 2.