Here comes Lindsey Dullard. She’s flying. She’s flying insde the 3-point arc. She’s two steps past the top of the key. Now she catches a pass, at full speed, three steps in now, and . . . this is true, I swear . . . she suddenly gets bigger. She’s no longer a skinny sophomore. She’s big in the shoulders and big in the arms. Now she’s rising above the kids, flying in to finish, her left hand practically at the rim. She lays a shot softly against the board for a bucket that meant little in the moment but suggested that someday soon, very soon, Lindsey Dullard will make buckets that mean a lot.

The day’s good news: as expected, the Morton High School Lady Potters won the Galesburg Winter Classic tonight. In the afternoon they beat Peoria Notre Dame, 56-22. In the evening they beat Galesburg, 65-46.

The better news: They Potters now have won 20 games in a row, and at 23-1 they’re ahead of the pace they set in winning any of their three straight state championships, seasons they went 33-3, 33-3, and 34-2. Even in the last stage of the grueling “Gauntlet” – four games in four days on successive weekends – the Potters were efficient offensively, merciless defensively, and so relentlessly aggressive with pressure at both ends that they wore people out, first physically and then psychically. As Peoria Notre Dame coach Layne Langhoff put it: “They blew right by us.”

The best news: Lindsey Dullard.

Here she is against Galesburg, late in the game, coming off a back screen in a play the Potters call “Hammer.”

On the right wing, the little guard Kassidy Shurman has the ball. It’s her job, if possible, to deliver a pass to Dullard breaking to the basket. If there’s no line of sight to Dullard, Shurman can back the ball out and start over.

But she sees Dullard running free.

She lobs an alley-oop pass.

Without breaking stride, Dullard reaches high for the ball and in one leap kisses it off the glass, every so softly, two points, the Potters’ last bucket of the game.

Her coach, Bob Becker, who put the play in only this week in practice, comes off the bench in celebration. And it’s a contest as to who is smiling the biggest, Dullard or Shuman, for these Potters are having themselves some fun these days. Even Galesburg fans recognized they had been in the presence of something special, one old guy harrumphing to a friend, “What do you expect? They are all All-Americans.”

To say Dullard was the Potters’ leading scorer in both games is to say not much, really. She had 13 against Peoria Notre Dame and 24 against Galesburg. More important, she demonstrated a growing confidence in every facet of her game. Once helpless as a rebounder, she now is dependable. As an inside defender, she has learned to deny entry passes and has become an adept shot-blocker. She plays the point on the Potters’ full-court press and, with her 6-foot-1 length, confounds ball-handlers who have trouble moving passes either over or around her. Offensively, she is a load for any defense; she built her early reputation as a 3-point shooter, and that reputation has been affirmed, but she has added – as shown on that slashing drive against Notre Dame – moves to the basket that make her a double-threat.

Look at the way she scored against Galesburg . . .

Four 3’s (one after blocking a shot at the other end). A floater from 6 feet. A leaner from 6 feet on a drive. Three other layups created by drives in the paint. The “Hammer” alley-oop. To be generous to Dullard, we might even partially-credit her with a Courtney Jones put-back basket; Dullard’s 3-point try landed with such a shooter’s touch that it took an extra bounce on the rim and allowed Jones to go up after Galesburg’s rebounders had come down.

Afterwards, I asked Dullard, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much she thought she had improved from the first day of practice to today.

“About 9,” she said.

“She was awesome tonight,” Becker said. “That play in the Notre Dame game – I saw a little bit of ‘Beast Mode.’”

Morton led Notre Dame only 22-12 at halftime. It then went on a 26-2 run in the third quarter with Dullard scoring 10 points, all on driving layups. “The way we played defensively,” Becker said, “allowed us to play the tempo offense we want. In that kind of game, we’re dangerous.”

Like Notre Dame, Galesburg hung with Morton for a while. It trailed only 20-17 with 5:53 to play in the first half. But, like Notre Dame, Galesburg crumpled under Morton’s constant attacks at both ends. In the next 8 minutes of game action, Morton outscored Galesburg 20-2 and led 40-19. Dullard had 7 points in that game-deciding run.

Morton’s scoring against Notre Dame: Dullard 13. Tenley Dowell 10, Josi Becker and Caylie Jones 9 apiece, Courtney Jones 5, Peyton Dearing 4, Bridget Wood 3, Megan Gold 2, and Addi Cox 1.

Against Galesburg: Dullard 24, Dowell 17, Becker and Shurman 8 each, Courtney Jones 6, Caylie Jones 2.