Bless ‘em, those Morton High School students who rocked the place tonight during the East Peoria sectional semifinal game. But, really, c’mon, kids.

With 30 seconds to play, eager to get on with it, they started serenading the Washingtonians, singing them to sleep, singing, “La da dada…gooood night.”

What? The Potters were up six with 30 seconds to play. Thirty seconds tonight was an eternity. Up by six and the Potters’ Izzy Hutchinson missed a free throw, meaning it's scary to realize that Washington might throw in a quick 3 and it’s a 3-point, your-life-flashing-before-your-eyes thing.

But wait. Yes, Izzy missed. The ball came off the right side, and from the middle slot along the lane, the left side, with the ball in the air, here came . . . flying … Julia Laufenberg!

The second Potter off the bench tonight, she played good minutes of relentless defense against Washington’s best shooter. Julia Laufenberg! Long, tall, Julia! She took a rebound that logically belonged to Washington And Julia of all people, grabbing an offensive rebound off a free throw, crouched low around a defender to bounce it out to the littlest Potter, Katie Brock, almost unseen among the bigs. She moved it Ellie VanMeenen.

Don’t you love it? Julia made a little play that if it didn’t win a big game, it at least made it possible to breathe again. Seven seconds later, Ellie V made a free throw for a 39-32 lead, up SEVEN points, a three-possession game, and it was time to think about Thursday night because . . .

. . . at last, Bob Becker gets what he has wanted.

On Nov. 25, Lincoln defeated the Potters, 66-50, to win Morton’s Thanksgiving tournament.

“It’s been kind of a goal of ours,” the Potters’ coach said, “to have another crack at Lincoln.”

Lincoln is 34-0 this season. It was 36-1 last season. It won its semifinal at East Peoria tonight, leaving Kankakee a hopeless mess, 64-28. Lincoln has won 30 running-clock games this season.

“Hopefully,” Becker said of Thursday night’s sectional championship game, “it won’t be a running clock, not a laugher . . .”

To hear that, you might think the Potters were a rag-tag gaggle of intramural stragglers when in fact they are the Mid-Illini Conference champions, have won 11 straight games, 22 of 24, are 26-5 overall, are ranked #2 in Class 3A, and are within reach of the program’s eighth sectional championship in 10 years, with a fifth state championship out there somewhere. Tonight they jumped out to an early 16-4 lead en route to a second victory in three tries this season with Washington.

The coach went on. “ . . . and hopefully we can hunt down one more Thursday night.”

All those hopefully’s hide the truth that these Potters are winning all those games the very hardest way – winning in the paint with rebounding and defense. It ain’t pretty. “Grit and toughness” is Becker’s mantra of the moment. But a W is a W is a W.

Becker's team had 10 field goals tonight, 8 layups, all on slashing drives to the bucket that also produced 18 free-throw points. In contrast, Washington’s 11 field goals included 4 3’s and only 7 free throws. Seven times now in the 11-game streak, Morton has held opponents under 40 points; it has given up no more than 42.

So, what about Lincoln?

“They’re beatable,” senior co-captain Addy Engel said. “We know who we got to stop. Their offense runs through (Kloe) Froebe (Lincoln’s all-state guard). I’m confident our coaches will come up with a good game plan. We’ll have to execute it.”

I am of two minds. Morton can win if it plays exceedingly well at both ends. Lincoln, #1 in 3A, can win if it plays the way it has played for two years now.

I asked Hutchinson about Lincoln.

“If we take away Froebe and that #4 (Becca Heitzig), we got a chance,” she said.

I am a Morton boy-reporter who grew up in his grandmother’s Lincoln tavern.

“I’m hoping for a five-overtime game,” I said.

Izzy laughed. “That’d be really cool.”

Morton’s scoring tonight: Hutchinson 9 (6 of 8 free throws in the last 3 minutes), Abby VanMeenen 9, Engel 8, Ellie V 8, Payton Hays 2, Katie Brock 2, Paige Selke 2.