Morton’s Lady Potters 50, Team with really long name 27

The Potters were not particularly sharp tonight in their victory over Wheaton Warrenville South to open defense of their State Farm Holiday Classic championship – and I know the feeling. For reasons that made sense at the time, I got out of bed at 2:15 a.m. Saturday. That’s 2:15 a.m., as in are-you-out-of-your-mind with this 2:15 a.m. thing? Exacerbating the crazy, I then drove to Walmart 18 mile away. (I am near no living thing except deer, raccoons, and a lone, feral cat prowling for mice.) A sane person’s question: Why did you go to Walmart at 2:15 a.m. on Saturday morning December 22? My answer: I was awake and I needed Christmas lights.

Turns out that 3 a.m. on a Saturday is good time to shop at Walmart. Most Walmartians are asleep in their alien-planet pods. I had clear sailing in the Christmas lights section. Of course, the Sam Walton Law of Merchandising makes it illegal to enter a Walmart and escape with only the stuff on your list. Done with a garland or two, done with lights for uses I’d never before imagined, done with the cash-register impulse buy – Snickers! – I was home and in bed at zero-dark-thirty. I believe that’s the same time our Special Ops people rang Osama Bin Laden’s wake-up bell. Among civilians it’s known as are-you-out-of-your-mind with this 4 in the morning thing?

Point is, I was not particularly sharp the rest of that Saturday. Seventeen hours later, I had to write about a Lady Potters game. By then I was spectacularly dull. A constellation of historic Potters stars made the Potterdome glitter that night with story possibilities. I should have asked what they thought of this year’s team. But did I hustle to get Brandi Bisping on record? Did I chase down Chandler Ryan? With Jadison Wharram and Kassidy Shurman in the house – my go-to quote machines back in the day!! – did I do any more than type their names into my story?

No, and here’s why. In 21 hours, I had slept three. Last Saturday night, I was the zombie sportswriter. I’ve been hooked up to typing machines a long time and I can make it sound like I worked my tail off. But I knew better. I’d mailed it in. The only thing to do in that case is the same thing the Lady Potters now will do – forget what just happened and tee it up again as soon as possible.

It’s not like a 23-point victory is a bad thing. It’s a good thing. A win is a win is a win. It was the Potters’ ninth straight, all by double figures, none closer than 17 points. It raised their season record to 13-1 going into Thursday night’s 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal game against Chicago Simeon at Normal Community High School. And yet, for all that, the Potters were truly good – championship-good – for less than seven minutes of the game.

Because he has been at this for 20 seasons now, the Morton coach, Bob Becker, believes he knows exactly what happened to cause instances where, at least twice, Potters made passes to people who weren’t there. At least three times, they missed point-blank layups. Who knows how many times they passed up wide-open mid-range shots? Good heavens, they outscored the Wheaton Warrenville people, 21-1, in 6 minutes and 40 seconds of the first half – which is spectacular until you realize it means that in the other 25 minutes and 20 seconds against that same team, they won only 29-26.

Becker blames the not-particularly-sharp night on “three days off.” He gave the team three days with no practice around Christmas. ‘Twas an educator’s gift to his students. They’re high school kids. It’s time with their families. They won’t always be teenagers, they’ll be gone. Give ‘em time around Christmas. The educator in the coach knows it was the right thing to do, but the coach in the educator gets antsy with three days off. He wants his team razor-sharp all the time, not some of the time. Three days off? It’s an eternity, and Becker himself felt its effects.

“I must’ve gained five pounds over Christmas,” he said. He wears one of those devil’s-workshop watches that counts your steps. He says his usual day, as an elementary school phys ed teacher and high school basketball coach, comes to 25,000 steps. “This week,” he said, with a smile born of pleasure and seasoned by regret, “about the only steps I took were from the couch to the food counter.”

To further his analysis of the three-days-off syndrome, Becker said, “They know this tournament is tough, and they know they’ve got to run the gauntlet of good teams to win it. And what happens after the time off and a game like this is that they’ll come back the next night and play well.”

I mentioned a 21-1 run that was essentially the ball game. It began with a Megan Gold fast-break layup at 2:44 of the first quarter and ended with a Courtney Jones move inside at 4:04 of the second. It was done with aggressive defense that forced the Wheaton Warrenville offense to set up two steps behind the 3-point arc. (The WW’s made only 2 of 21 shots in the first half.) Morton’s offense was its usual blend of transition layups off its trapping press, Tenley Dowell and Lindsey Dullard slashes to the rim, and the occasional 3-pointer (four tonight) loosening up the defense inside.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 13. Jones had 10 (including a catch-and-release 3 at the third-quarter buzzer), Katie Krupa 7, Dullard and Peyton Dearing 5 each, Gold 4, Maddy Becker 3, Olivia Remmert 2, and Addie Cox 1.

It is now 9:38 p.m. If you see me at Walmart at 3 a.m., please call my keeper. I have a game to write tomorrow.

Morton’s Lady Potters 71, St. Joseph-Ogden 34.

So now the Potters are 12-1, winners of eight straight, one by 50 points, one by 37, two by 30, two by 29, one by 18, the other by 17. (Notice a trend?) They’re playing so well that Bob Becker said, “They’ve got a chance.” Then he said it again, “They’ve got a chance.” And what he meant by that – that this team has a chance to win a state championship – wasn’t as important as where he said it and to whom he said it.

He said it in the locker room. He said it to his 14 players. And he said it in front of Brandi Bisping, Chandler Ryan, Jadison Wharram, Caylie Jones, Kassidy Shurman, and Josi Becker. Those old Potters, all now in college, were home for Christmas, meaning they could sneak away from the family for a couple hours in the Potterdome this afternoon.

Public address announcer Brian Newman spotted them in the bleachers and asked, “All Potter alumni, please stand.” He might as well have said, “Potter state championship history, please stand,” for those young women played for Potters’ teams that won the school’s first state basketball championship ever, in 2015, and won the championship the next two seasons as well.

So Becker’s choice of setting and audience is worth our attention because it’s high praise to say this year’s team has “got a chance” for a state championship when the locker room is full of Potters who have been there, done that, and know what it takes.

Those old Potters certainly saw enough in today’s Potters to agree with Becker. St. Joseph-Ogden is accustomed to winning. It came in with a 12-1 record (albeit in Class 2A). Yet Morton dominated every possession at both ends when it mattered. After three quarters, the Potters led, 65-34. Once again it set off the fourth quarter’s merciful running clock (the sixth time in their last seven games).

When I say “dominated every possession,” I mean the Potters caused discomfort, discombobulation, and (probably) dyspepsia. In seeming defiance of physical laws, their defenders were everywhere all at once. The worst thing that could happen for a St. Joseph-Ogden ball-handler was to have the ball in her hands. That poor girl would find herself surrounded by a swarm of previously invisible Potters. Two things happen then: 1) the poor girl makes a poor pass (Chandler Ryan, in the third row, might have caught one such pass, except her dad, Bo, intercepted it) or 2) the poor girl would have made a poor pass except she no longer had the ball because one of the Potters, all of whom work with a pickpocket’s heartless guile, had taken the ball and run off with it.

As for offense, here’s a note I made after the third bucket the Potters made in 26 seconds of the third quarter: “I DIDN’T SEE IT.” Tenley Dowell had put back a rebound at 5:57. At 5:41, Dowell dropped in a layup off an in-bounds steal. At 5:31, a Peyton Dearing steal and layup. (A neighbor reported the event that I didn’t see, Dearing being one of those invisible pickpockets.)

For the magical fun of it, here’s another moment on third-quarter offense: Dearing misses a layup, Courtney Jones bats the rebound to the top of the key where Dowell catches it and throws it to back to Dearing on the left side who gets it into Jones in the paint who flips it to Dowell slashing down the right side. All done faster than I can type it.

The only worrisome news of the day was the ankle sprain suffered by freshman Katie Krupa. Because she had missed practice yesterday, she didn’t start the game. (A long-time Becker rule.) In her first two minutes of play today, she tweaked the ankle. She stayed on the bench the rest of the way with ice on the ankle.

Dowell again led the Potters with 18 points, 16 of them in the middle two quarters. Lindsey Dullard had 14, Bridget Wood 10, Jones 9, Raquel Frakes 7, Dearing 7, Maddy Becker 4, and Megan Gold 2. (The Culver’s Report: Six 3’s. Again no FREE CUSTARD!)

The Potters now have three days off before beginning defense of their 2017 championships in the State Farm Holiday Classic in Bloomington-Normal. There they are seeded third, meaning they will be tested thoroughly.

The Morton Lady Potters return to the State Farm Holiday Classic (SFHC) for the 13th straight year.  This will be the first time they will be returning as Defending SFHC Champions (2017).  The Potters were Runner-up 3 times (2006, 2014 & 2016), finished 3rd in 2013 and 4th 3 times (2007, 2008 & 2011).  The Lady Potters are 30-18 all-time in SFHC tournament play.

Over the past 12 years, the SFHC has been one of the most competitive and best run high school hoops tournaments anywhere and it has served like a ‘sharpening stone’ that has honed many of the great Lady Potter teams of the past.  Expect this year’s Large School Girls Bracket at the SFHC to be a grinder like none we have ever seen before.  Eight of the 16 teams are State ranked in Illinois by the AP in Class 3A & 4A:

Peoria Richwoods (14-0 AP Ranked #1 in Class 3A)

Morton Lady Potters  (11-1 AP Ranked #4 in Class 3A)

Rock Island (8-0 AP Ranked #4 in Class 4A)

Bethalto Civic Memorial (12-0 AP Ranked #5 in Class 3A)

Geneseo Maple Leafs (11-0  AP Ranked #7 in Class 3A)

Normal Community (9-5 AP Ranked #10 in Class 4A)

Normal West (9-3 AP Ranked #11 in Class 4A)

Kenwood (10-3 AP Ranked #14 in Class 4A)

and the field also includes the Union – Ryle, KY (9-0 #1 Ranked team in Kentucky), which has some national High Major D1 talent.  Look for Chicago Simeon (10-4) to make a move into the AP Class 4A rankings as well as they have posted some very good wins so far.

So those 10 teams in the SFHC LSG Bracket have a composite record of 103-16 through today.  That is pretty darn impressive and should help this 40th Anniversary of the State Farm Holiday Classic be one of the strongest ever.   There are many things that make the State Farm Holiday Classic one of the best holiday hoops tournaments in the country.

The Competition: 2018 Large School Girls Bracket

The Teams: 2018 State Farm Holiday Classic Teams

The Pairings: 2018 State Farm Holiday Classic Pairings

The History & Tradition: History of the Classic

The Venues: 2018 SFHC Venues

The Tournament Website: TheClassic.org

And about everything from the Tournament programs to the popcorn are the best you will find anywhere!  So get ready to soak up some great High School Holiday Hoops and come out to support your Morton Lady Potters!!!

Morton’s Lady Potters 51, Limestone 22.

At halftime, when Morton led, 40-11, a friend sent a text: “Are you bored?” My reply: “So far the most exciting thing I’ve seen is that Bob Becker’s tie talks – or plays Christmas music – he just held it up to a player’s ear – full investigative report to come.”

What happened is that the Potters’ coach went into his closet this afternoon to choose a tie for tonight’s game in the Potterdome. It’s winter. It’s practically Christmas. He saw a red tie with a snowflake pattern. “It was just hanging there,” he said. “I don’t know how long I’ve had it. There’s stuff in there that’s been there a long, long time.”

If I were to put an age on Becker’s tie, I’d say it’s something the young Santa Claus might have rejected as too old to wear to his senior prom. It’s kinda dullish and kinda wrinkly. It’s for sure older than any of Becker’s players and perhaps two of his assistant coaches. It’s the kind of tie sportswriters wear because its look will be improved by mustard stains.

The coach’s wife, Evelyn, cited her man’s history of wardrobe malfunctions: 1) the Inside-Out Sport Coat that he couldn’t get fully off in protest of a zebra’s utter blindness, and 2) the Two Pair of Cheap Pants ripped in the backside area by vigorous sideline maneuvers. She mentioned those cases by way of disclaiming any responsibility for The Tie That Maybe Sings Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Evelyn Becker said, “I don’t know anything about it.”

Four minutes into the game, with Morton up 7-0, one of Becker’s assistant coaches, Megan Hasler, was seen laughing on the bench. She said something to the boss about hearing music. Was his tie making music? To which the coach said what any grown man would say when told his tie was a jukebox. He said, “Huh????,” only he said with maybe five question marks because he had heard nothing.

Becker then turned from the action and held the end of the tie up to the ear of the nearest player on the bench, the junior guard Peyton Dearing. She was seen smiling and afterwards she reported, “Music, like, Christmas carols.”

Apparently, as Becker paced in front of the bench, he had brushed the tie flat against his shirt and in the doing had pressed a music button sewn into the tip of the tie. Soon enough, through various experiments, the coach learned that each time he pressed the button, the tie played a different Christmas carol. He held it against my ear and I believe I heard it say, “Be cool, Bob. It’s only Limestone.”

A 15-0 run at the start of the second quarter put Morton up, 32-6. The run began with back-to-back 3’s by Tenley Dowell and Maddy Becker that suggested it might be another Culver’s FREE CUSTARD! night. Alas, no freebies this time, for those were the Potters’ only 3’s. (With no official shot chart, I’m guessing Morton went 2-for-23 on 3’s.) In that run, Dowell and Becker scored all 15. (After Katie Krupa scored the game’s first seven, Dowell with 16 and Becker with 11 scored the next 27.)

Playing less than half the game, Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 18. Becker had 11, Krupa her 7, and Dearing 4. Five Potters scored 2: Lindsey Dullard, Courtney Jones, Raquel Frakes, Megan Gold, and Kathryn Reiman. Bridget Wood had 1.

The Potters are now 11-1 for the season and 5-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference where they have won their last 38 league games. Limestone is 1-4 in the conference and 4-8 overall.

Morton’s Lady Potters 68, Second-best team in league 39

The Lady Potters’ coach, Bob Becker, wrote two notes on the whiteboard he took to the bench before tonight’s game.

The first:

HARDER LONGER TOGETHER

The other:

RELENTLESS

A minute into the game, I made my own note. Like those doctors who aren’t doctors but play doctors on television, I am an expert who isn’t an expert but I play an expert on this blog. Here’s my note, scribbled in the second minute when Metamora led, 3-0.

“Morton leaner, quicker, will impose its will.”

One minute later, Morton led, 7-5. After that, the Potters never trailed. What it did was rip Metamora’s heart out and stomp that sucker flat. (Somebody write some music, we got some country lyrics going here.)

This was supposed to be a Big Game. Both teams had 9-1 season records and both were undefeated in three Mid-Illini Conference games. The problem with that is that Morton’s too good for the M-I these days. The victory was the Potters’ 37th straight in conference play. They last lost in the conference on January 22, 2016. (I refuse to say who beat them.)

Early in the second quarter, when it was still kind of a game, Morton’s lead was 21-18. But leaner and quicker is a good thing, and it’s a really good thing when combined with better athletic talent and greater basketball skills. Less than six minutes later, the Potters completed a 16-5 run that gave them a 37-23 lead at halftime.

That run began auspiciously when Lindsey Dullard made a 3-pointer from a full step behind the left-side arc. At the same time, Morton’s defense had rendered Metamora’s offense ineffectual. As they’ve done consistently of late, the Potters’ defenders seem to be everywhere all at once, jumping dribblers, jumping into passing lanes, jumping anyone so unfortunate as to have the basketball in her hands. I believe the adjective best applied to such persistent, aggressive, attacking defense is RELENTLESS.

Following Dullard’s long 3, Raquel Frakes’ drive to the rim brought her two free throws. Tenley Dowell added a free throw, again the result of a slash into the paint. Katie Krupa’s put-back of a missed free throw made it 29-18. And here came Dullard again. Barely had the ball touched her hands at 2:50 of the quarter before she re-directed the pass into a 3-pointer from the left side. A minute later, on the right side, she did another catch-and-shoot for her third 3. Courtney Jones capped the run with two free throws.

As for Dullard’s daggers, the 6-foot-1 junior said, “My confidence was pretty high. As soon as I make one, I feel good.”

Here a shooter’s smile.

“And I keep shooting.”

Whatever hope Metamora had of a second-half comeback ended a minute into the third quarter. That’s when something happened that caused me to make another of my expert notes. I even circled the note to remind myself of that moment. The note was all full of expertise. It went, “HOW???” Yes, your blogging expert had no idea, none at all, about what he had just seen – or not seen, or couldn’t explain if he had seen it. I mean, HOW did Katie Krupa do that thing she did?

The 6-foot freshman, Morton’s best post player in a longgggggg time, had made a layup of sorts from the right low block – only it was more of a soft, right-handed, 4-foot hook shot, or something (??) that I am yet not able to describe, it happened so quickly and with such apparent ease, as if the 15-year-old had been doing such stuff for a longgggggg time.

Anyway, that Krupa bucket was the start of an 11-4 run that sent Morton to a 48-27 lead. And it wasn’t even the most memorable Krupa move. That one came two minutes later – and your blogging expert did in fact see that one and he can describe it and even give you some history on it. (Earning my Milk Duds here.)

With the ball on the low left block, Krupa saw she could move across the paint. She did. Then she put up a reverse layup – only she did it with her back to the rim and used her left hand to spin it in from the right low block. Yes, her left hand this time. Envision that. Going away from the rim, her back to the rim, twisting in the air, using her left hand to toss the ball behind her and off the board. (If all that sound expert-y, trust me. I have no real idea what I saw. For that matter, neither does Bob Becker, who in wonderment matching mine said, “I didn’t teach her THAT.”)

Steve Krupa did teach her that. He’s Krupa’s father. “My dad has been my coach forever,” Krupa said. “I was in the fifth grade when I saw a girl do that reverse layup. I thought, ‘Cool,’ and I asked my dad, ‘Can I learn to do that?’” The answer was beautifully seen tonight.

Anyway, with Dullard from outside, Krupa inside, Dowell everywhere, and defenders doing their RELENTLESS best to scare the bejabbers out of every Metamora ball-handler, Becker needed only three words in his post-game summary: “That was fun.”

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17, Dullard had 16, Frakes 10, Krupa 9, Maddy Becker 7, Jones 5, Megan Gold 2, and Addie Cox 2.

It’s been a very good start to the season for the Morton Lady Potters and the Associated Press (AP) voters rewarded them with the #4 ranking in the first AP poll of the season.  Morton is currently 9-1 through their first 10 games and their only loss was by 3 points in Double OT against the AP #1 ranked and defending State Champion Peoria Richwoods.

Aside that lone set-back, Morton has beaten some very good teams and made some good teams look not so good in their other 9 games.  In those games, Morton beat AP Class 4A #10 Normal Community on the road (57-52), AP Class 3A #10 Bishop McNamara (67-39), one of Wisconsin’s best teams in the Monroe Cheesemakers (57-40) and the other six teams by an average point differential of 35 points per game.  That is with the reserves playing as many or more minutes than the starters and a running clock in 6 of their 10 games (new IHSA rule when a team leads by 30 in the 4th Qtr the clock continuously runs).

So Morton really hasn’t had to  flex their muscles very often and has dominated in 8 of their first 10 games.  Probably worthy of a top 4 ranking to this point.

So I have been asked, “If Morton is this good, how can there be 2 teams, other than Richwoods, ranked ahead of them in Class 3A?”.  Well, that is not a bad question and I was kind of curious about that myself, so I took a look.

Kankakee H.S. is ranked #2 in Class 3A.  They are 12-0 and have beaten some decent south Chicago suburb teams, but haven’t played any other highly ranked teams yet.  They have one of the State’s highest scoring juniors in Ambranette Storr, who transferred from Rockford.  Storr and what appears to be a good freshman class have come in to bolster a 23-8 team from last season that lost to Richwoods 61-36 in February.  Their early success so far this year, and Storr’s celebrity, likely have AP voters in that area excited and for good reason.  I’d say at this point the jury is still out, but upcoming Holiday tournaments will likely bring out a few teams that will test them. Definitely one to pay attention to.

Coming in at #3 is Carterville H.S..  Carterville is located south of St. Louis (admittedly, I had to look that up) and has started the season 8-0.  Their key victory so far was over perennial power Highland H.S. 44-42.  Highland has been the southern Illinois sportswriters’ AP darling the last few years due to beating most of the other teams in their region.  So it sounds like Carterville has earned that title with their early 2 point victory over Highland. I don’t see where they have any other marquee wins yet, but they are winning most of their games by about 20 points per game. Should be interesting to follow their progress.

So the bottom line –  is it’s early and AP writers are going to have local favorites that they will vote for.  There are some very good teams in Class 3A that are currently ranked lower than Morton too.  Nazareth Academy (last year’s Class 3A runner-up) returns some very good players and they could be very good.  They will be tested at the Montini Christmas Tournament by many of Chicago’s best 4A teams.  That should give us a better idea on how good they are this year.

Morton may get the chance to see AP Class 3A #5 Bethalto Civic Memorial and #7 Geneseo play at the State Farm Holiday Classic later this month.  The SFHC field is absolutely loaded this year and also includes: Richwoods, Rock Island, Normal Community, Chicago Simeon, Chicago St. Ignatius, Normal West and Union H.S. out of Ryle, KY (#1 ranked team in Kentucky).  I’ll have a separate story on this year’s SFHC coming up soon.

Before that though, the Lady Potters will be busy taking care of business in the Mid-Illini Conference and a non-conference contest against AP Class 2A #6 St. Joseph-Ogden on Saturday, December 22nd.

Things are just starting to get good Potter fans!!!

Morton’s Lady Potters 65, Washington High 48.

For a minute and a half tonight, the Potters were perfect. Ninety seconds on the game clock. Doesn’t seem like much. I’m here to tell you it’s 87.6 seconds more than most basketball teams ever get. In those perfect 90 seconds, the Potters caused me to make two notes: “Killing ‘em” and “Like 7 guys.”

In those 90 perfect seconds of the third quarter, the Potters’ killing-‘em offense was so good it scored every which way on a 12-0 run that produced a 49-20 lead over a decent team (7-2 coming in). In those 90 perfect seconds, the Potters’ like-7-guys defense was so good that Washington must have felt like just handing the ball to the nearest Potter rather than be embarrassed by having it stolen yet again.

Actually, that last thing – handing the ball over – kinda happened. In the second quarter, a Washington player had the ball out of bounds at midcourt. She could find no one open. She had the clever thought of bouncing it off a Morton defender. Only instead of doing the clever thing of bouncing it off Tenley Dowell’s knee, she chucked it at Dowell’s mid-section. Dowell caught it. Just caught it. Here’s what Dowell thought at that moment, “OK, easy layup.”

Sometimes, in practice, coaches will run six or seven defenders against the offense. The idea is to make life miserable for ball-handlers. That’s what the Potters did to Washington tonight, only they simulated the seven-defender defense with only five players. But those five were everywhere, stopping dribblers, cutting off passing lanes, deflecting passes, knocking the ball out of everyone’s hands, generally picking their pockets in broad daylight. Life was made miserable for any poor Washington girl who ever thought she liked basketball.

“In the second quarter and part of the third,” Dowell said, “we were OK on defense. But earlier we didn’t have enough intensity.” Such are the thoughts of a team that is 9-1 for the year, 3-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference (and on a 35-game M-I winning streak). Sometimes, after all, 90 seconds of perfection is just not enough.

The Potters led after one low-intensity quarter, 15-10, and were up 33-16 at halftime. Intensity arrived with 5:40 to play in the third quarter when Katie Krupa’s rebound bucket made the lead, 39-20.

Then it happened, Morton killing ‘em on offense, making life miserable on defense.

Dowell sprinted the length of the court, made two long sidestepping moves between two defenders for a powerful, elegant layup.

Lindsey Dullard, working in the post, scored in close.

Twenty seconds later, on a nifty entry pass by Bridget Wood, Dullard did it again and added a free throw.

Wood then made a 3-pointer with 4:10 left in the quarter.

Suddenly, Morton led, 49-20.

“We turned our defense into offense,” Dowell said, meaning that every good thing defensively led to a good thing at the other end, a transition game that when it’s running smoothly is a beautiful thing to see.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Krupa had 12, Dullard 9, Peyton Dearing 7, Wood 6, Maddy Becker 5, Raquel Frankes 4, Courtney Jones 3, Claire Kraft 2.

As for FREE ICE CREAM! or even FREE CUSTARD! from Cukver’s, the Potters did not reach the magic 10 3’s tonight. They had seven, two apiece from Dullard and Wood, and singles from Dearing, Jones, and Becker.

Incidentally, it was 57-27 after three quarters, again making the fourth quarter a running-clock quarter. It’s an Illinois High School Association rule this season – a 30-point lead after three means there’s no clock-stopping in the fourth save for timeouts and injuries. Morton has played running-clock games now in four of its last five games, the exception being a game in Wisconsin, a state so unusual they play 18-minute halves instead of four eight-minute quarters. They also wear cheese on their heads.

The running clock, by the way, did give Morton’s coach, Bob Becker, a talking point for his reserves who generally work those fourth quarters.

“We gave up 20 points on a running clock,” he said, meaning the Potters lost the fourth quarter, 20-8.

It is a trend, perhaps not a worrisome trend, but coaches of 9-1 teams who build 30-point leads need things to worry about, so Becker does have one troubling, trending statistic to consider. In six running-clock fourth quarters this season, the Potters have lost the quarter five times. They have been outscored, 62-36.

Morton’s Lady Potters 68, Pekin 18. It really wasn’t that close.

From my perch in the third row of the bleachers, right behind the 5th and 6th graders Heat team, I texted a friend a note that was not-at-all mysterious: “M 53-0 at the half.”

Being a girls basketball fan, she understood perfectly. She knew the Morton High School Lady Potters were Culverizing the poor Lady Dragons of Pekin High.

She texted back: “Go home. No story there. Go directly to the State finals.”

Duty demanded that I stay to the foregone conclusion. Besides, at the time of our correspondence, the Potters were three short of the 10 3-pointers that would cause the local Culver’s fast food restaurant to give away FREE ICE CREAM! to everyone in the Potterdome.

You’ve seen major league ballparks where they hang K’s to keep track of strikeouts. They were hanging 3’s on the Potterdome’s south-end stage. When it got to eight 3’s, Phil Skinner got on the phone. He owns the Culver’s franchise in Morton.

He said, “I told ‘em to get ready, we might have 300 customers coming in for FREE CUSTARD!”

Oops, yes, my bad. It’s FREE CUSTARD! Or, as the man in charge explained, “It’s premium ice cream!”

I’m old school. I thought custard was like yogurt or tofu or some dainty delicacy. Look, I remember the Good Humor wagon ringing bells. I want FREE ICE CREAM! With sprinkles! In a waffle cone! Handed to me by a Mr. Rogers look-alike in one of those brilliantly white Good Humor uniforms.

But, OK, I defer to greater wisdom here. I happily accepted a coupon for custard handed out by a Lady Potters’ freshman, Maggie Hobson, who on this night was a busy young woman. She played very well in the jayvee game, helped hang the 3’s on the stage, and admitted the varsity game was “a little stressful.”

Stressful?

“I ran the spotlight,” Hobson said, meaning the light that is turned on the each of the Potters starters as they hustle out during pre-game introductions in the darkened Potterdome. “It has to be right on time on each player.”

Safe to say, I believe, that Maggie Hobson did all of her jobs perfectly because, on this night, everything the Lady Potters touched turned not to gold but to … FREE CUSTARD!

Speaking of gold, why was Megan Gold running through the high school parking lot in uniform at 5:23 p.m.? She’s one of the Lady Potters’ seniors. A bunch had been hanging out at a player’s house when they realized they better get to the gym. “Hi,” she shouted while running, and later dropped in a mid-range jumper that gave Morton a 21-0 lead, and even later said, “It was an historic night.”

Historic?

“53-0,” she said, and was kind enough to not include a duh.

“Truly a clinic,” head coach Bob Becker said. “Relentless. High energy. At both ends.”

“Never seen a halftime shutout,” assistant coach Bill Davis said.

However mediocre Pekin is, and whatever their record is means nothing to this story, because on this night the Potters would have made even a good team beg for tender mercies. In fewer than three minutes of the first quarter, Morton scored 18 points in every way points can be scored: a powered-up layup by Katie Krupa, a pair of 3’s by Lindsey Dullard, a mid-court steal and breakaway by Tenley Dowell.

Six points a minute for a game makes it 192-0.

It was so one-sided that one side of my notebook was empty. I split the pages, Morton’s scoring down one side, the opponents scoring down the other. When the opponents do not score, it gives a wise-guy sportswriter plenty of white space to fill with wise-guy notes, such as:

“Let the Heat take over.”

“Somebody get the 10th. I’m hungry.”

The blessed somebody became Raquel Frakes. Her 3 from the top left of the arc at 1:12 of the third quarter gave Morton a 62-7 lead and set off the loudest cheer of the Potterdome night. To be fair, it was perhaps only a decibel or three greater than the cheering, some of it no doubt sincere, when Pekin first scored a minute and 39 seconds into the second half, a 3-ball cutting Morton’s lead to 53-3.

Morton is now 8-1 for the season and 2-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference (in which it has won 35 straight games and 44 of its last 45.)

Thirteen Potters scored. Dowell, Dullard, and Bridget Wood all had 11 points. Maddy Becker had 6, Frakes 5, Olivia Remmert 4, Courtney Jones 4, Gold 4, Krupa 3, Kathryn Reiman 3, Peyton Dearuing 2, Claire Kraft 2, and Addie Cox 2.

Morton’s Lady Potters 69, Pontiac 39. It wasn’t that close.

That sound you heard, ker-LUNK, was the back of Bridget Wood’s head ker-LUNK’ing against hardwood. The Potters’ senior guard had been run over by a truck disguised as a Pontiac player. Wood rose quickly and felt around on her head to see 1) if it was still there, and 2) was it still in one piece? Happily, it was and it was. That one piece soon had a bump growing out of it alongside her blonde ponytail.

On the bench, an athletic trainer shone a light into each of Wood’s eyes. He talked to her in hopes of getting responses in English, which concussion test she passed easily. In the fifth row of the bleachers, Wood’s mother, Shannon, had said only, “Ooooh.” Then, satisfied that no significant damage had been done, the trainer did what any mother might have suggested. He gave Wood a big bag of ice to press against her noggin.

Later, Wood was run over again. No call of charge that time, either.

Even later, Wood was on a drive toward the basket when she was tripped and fell face forward down the lane. I’m not sure ker-LUNK is the proper characterization of the sound her body made that time. I leave it to the reader to imagine the sound of the inside edge of your elbow striking hardwood. I know the sound my mouth would make, which would be, “#$%@!!”

Anyway, poor Bridget was bumped and bruised by the game she loves, and what does the mother say about the suffering daughter?

“Tough week so far for Bridget,” Shannon Wood said. “She had duty Sunday morning, and she got battered around there, too.”

She showed me a picture of a humongous airplane. Early Sunday morning Wood got on that plane. She was doing her Air National Guard duty. This was after a 3 ½-hour bus ride got her home Saturday at midnight following the Potters’ game in Wisconsin. On duty, Wood strapped herself into a seat on that giant Air Force cargo plane on a training mission. By training mission, the Air Force means the pilots do stuff that simulates the maneuvers necessary to deliver cargo in combat zones.

“Dives and stuff,” Bridget Wood said. Cargo planes are flying tin cans that shake, rattle, and roll. With the tail open to dump cargo, they become wind tunnels. Even strapped into a seat, as Wood and a dozen buddies were, the wind and vibrations beat up on the passengers.

Add the dives and stuff, the sudden turns, the roller-coaster ups and downs, the whole tilt-a-whirl thing, and Bridge Wood is here to say, “Everybody threw up . . .”

A smile.

“ . . .except me. I decided I was not going to throw up. And I didn’t.”

By then, an hour after the events, the bump on her head had gone down some and the bump on her elbow had come up some, and I asked her about the second time she was run over by a Pontiac truck. To the old guy safe in the bleachers, it seemed a little much for Wood to risk another ker-LUNK’ing.

“If I’d stepped out of the way,” she said, and then practically defined unselfish team play by adding, “that would have hurt more than hitting my head again.”

Wood didn’t score on this night, but who cares? Morton was a zillion times the better team, even if it showed its superiority only in rapid bursts that caused the coach, Bob Becker, to say, “They have to learn there’s no on-off switch. To be a great team like the other great Morton teams they have to play great all the time, not some of the time.”

One sensational burst opened the third quarter. Morton stretched a 16-point halftime lead to a 33-point lead in 6 ½ minutes. It did it with beautiful passing and a transition game that quickly turned rebounds, stops, and steals into layups at the other end. In a 22-5 run, seven Potters scored – Tenley Dowell had seven of those points, no one else had more than four.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 18, Lindsey Dullard had 9, Maddy Becker 8, Peyton Dearing 7, Makenna Baughman 5, Courtney Jones 5, Megan Gold 5, Addie Cox 4, Katie Krupa 4, Raquel Frakes 2, and Olivia Remmert 2.

I’d tell you how I got to Monroe, Wisconsin, except I don’t know. It was 189 miles from my house. Exited off I-39 somewhere near Rockford, drove through fog and rain and the gloom of night descending at 3:30 in the afternoon, did a couple U-turns in answer to that I’m-lost-again feeling, thought unkind things of Google Maps, inquired at two gas stations, and delivered my sorry wandering soul to the Monroe High School gym in time to see the Morton Lady Potters defeat the Cheesemakers, 57-40.

The old guy sitting beside me all night was a Cheesemakers fan. As to why he was in the Morton section, he said, “Like to see the other team closer.” He came to love the Lady Potters. “They’re just out-hustlin’ our girls. We got size on ‘em, but your girls are qui-eek.” I believe that means the Morton girls are double-quick if they’re so quick it takes two syllables to say how quick.

I asked him, “Do you know Monroe’s record?”

“Undefeated,” he said. “Other night, we let some team have nine points in the first half and nine in the second half. We didn’t look that good. That other team, it wasn’t like your team. Your team is good.” Then he asked, “You see ‘em play a lot?”

“Every game.”

“You take notes all the time?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How long since we scored.”

I looked at my notes. “It was 24-23, Morton. Now it’s 39-23. That’s 15-0 in 7 minutes and 16 seconds.”

“Over,” he said.

There were 11 minutes to play in the second of the 18-minute halves that are Wisconsin’s unusual rule. But the old guy had it right, for on this night one of Illinois’s best girls basketball teams was a lot better than one of Wisconsin’s. That 39-23 lead soon became 50-28. Such was Morton’s superiority that the old guy said, “Hope we get 40. Look respectable.”

Morton won easily because its offense performed at a standard only slightly higher than its defense. Twice sensational – in the game’s first eight minutes and in the second half’s first 10 minutes – the Potters offense created any mid-range shot it wanted and consistently moved the ball into the paint for close-up work at the rim. In those collective 18 minutes, Morton scored 36 of its 57 points. Meanwhile, the Potters’ defense caused such discombobulation among the Cheesemakers that the poor girls threw as many passes to nobody as they did to somebody. In those 18 minutes when the Potters scored 36, the Cheesemakers (I just like to type that!) scored 12.

When I say Morton’s offense was perfect in the first eight minutes, I mean it was without flaw to a layman’s eye. The Potters led, 22-9, with Katie Krupa turning nifty entry passes into powered-up layups and Tenley Dowell dropping in mid-range jumpers as well as slashing to the rim.

The Potters’ 14-3 run starting the second half was more of the same: Dowell a 3-pointer, Courtney Jones an 12-footer, Krupa a layup, Dowell an attack on the rim, Raquel Frakes a free throw, Jones two free throws, and Peyton Dearing a 3. That made it 42-26 – and Dearing, a little left-handed guard, had just begun.

The 3 was the first of her 12 straight points in three minutes. After the 3, she scored on back-to-back fast breaks of the very best kind, which is to say the freshman Krupa ripped down a defensive rebound each time, sprinted up-court on the dribble each time, and each time threw beautiful long bounce passes to the flying Dearing for layups – and when I say flying, I mean she is  a D-1 soccer player and when those people get in a hurry, they fly.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 14. Dearing had 12, Krupa 11, Jones 6, Raquel Frakes 4, and five players had 2 each: Lindsey Dullard, Maddy Becker, Bridget Wood, McKenna Baughman, and Claire Kraft.

And how, you ask, after wandering north, did I get home?

Maybe the only thing I learned in college was that you don’t need to know everything, you just need to know how to find it out. So I asked people for help on Google Maps. I asked: 1) Bob Becker’s mother, 2) Tenley Dowell’s mother, 3) the old man in the bleachers, 4) Bob Becker’s daughter, Josie, 5) and my ace co-pilot, John Bumgarner, who said, “Don’t ask me, I’m not smart enough to have a smart phone.”

As far as high school basketball games go, those that witnessed the Morton Lady Potters (4-1) play the Richwoods Knights (6-0) Saturday night, saw one of the best games they will ever see.   That may be a big statement, but the Potters and the Knights put on a show in this Double Overtime thriller (64-61 Richwoods) that won’t be forgotten anytime soon by those lucky enough to see it.  Pretty much everyone paying attention expected to see Morton & Richwoods meet in the Championship Game of the 10th Annual Morton Thanksgiving Classic and they did not disappoint. I heard veteran sportswriters, sportscasters and coaches call it an “Instant Classic”, “Game for the Ages”, “Battle Royal”, and you know what? All of those descriptions are not hyperbole.  It was as fun to watch as November basketball gets, that’s for sure.

There are some great rivalries in sports and many of our most memorable Champions of all time had a fierce rival.  Lakers/Celtics, Ali/Frazier, Duke/Carolina, Palmer/Nicklaus, Ohio State/Michigan for instance.  Central Illinois High School Basketball officially has their own version of “The Rivalry” with the Potters/Knights rivalry that has emerged over the past two decades and culminated with clashes over the last two seasons.

The two programs have combined for the last 4 IHSA Class 3A State Championships (Potters 2015/2016/2017 & Knights 2018) and have a combined 7 IHSA State Championships.  Morton and Richwoods also account for the last 7 Large School Player-of-the Year winners. 2018 (Cameron Taylor-R), 2017 & 2016 (Brandi Bisping-M), 2015 (Chandler Ryan-M), 2014 (Olivia Elger-R), 2013 (Sarah Livingston-M), 2012 (Maggie Cunningham-R). Morton and Richwoods have established themselves as the top programs in the area now for almost 20 years and possibly the best two programs in the State of Illinois over the last 5 years (including this season).

So what else would you expect from these two powerhouse high school programs, but a grind it out, back and forth, double OT cage fight.  Go ahead and tell these players that it is only November.  Pretty sure they would relish the opportunity to go at it with one another any month of the year, day of the week or time of the day.  They are all competitors and getting to watch this level of talent and competitor play each other in a high school setting is a real treat and very unique opportunity for local high school sports fans.

So what did this game and the first week of basketball for the Lady Potters tell us?  I think it confirmed that these Potters are a very good basketball team with some some special talent and the potential to be a great basketball team.  They made good teams look bad in blowout wins over United Township 68-16, Champaign Central 62-32 and Bishop McNamara 67-39. They rallied to beat a very good Class 4A team (Normal Community) in a true road game and they pushed the defending State Champion with 4 returning starters to 2OTs, again rallying from 9 down late in the game, in a game they had a great chance to win, twice.

It often takes a team your equal, to really expose what you need to work on the most.  Playing and beating teams by 20-40 points doesn’t tell you all that much about yourself.  I think Morton learned from the tough games that they have things to work on and what those things are.  They know they need to play stronger, tougher, attack more often, dig down more defensively and that they need to raise their level of play to another level.  I do not doubt that they will, but they have to put in the work.  They also learned that Richwoods is beatable and maybe learned some things that they can expose the next time they meet.

So what’s next for the Lady Potters?  Monday – Thursday will be practice days and then they will host Canton for their first Mid-Illini Conference game of the year.  I expect Canton to be a contender in the MI this year.  Guard heavy team that returns a Senior class of talented players and several high scoring Juniors that can be a very dangerous scoring threats.  They will attack the basket and have a couple very good perimeter shooters.  They are not a very big team in the post, but they are very experienced and scrappy. The Lady Potters will have a week to prepare for this game and then travel to Monroe, WI to take on the Monroe Cheesemakers.  We will have a detailed story on that game later in the week that will break them down, but they are expected to be a very good team with some outstanding next level players.

So hang on Lady Potter Fans.  This fantastic voyage is just getting started!!!

The Morton Lady Potters’ season kicked off Tuesday night at Normal Community High School, where the Potters showed some fight and determination. Coming back from 12 points down in the 3rd quarter to catch and over take a very good, IHSA Class 4A State ranked, NCHS Lady Iron team 57-52, the Potters showed some early grit.  Morton looked like a team that is just beginning to learn how all their pieces work together and no doubt in search of the perfect chemistry, but oh my, do they have some great pieces!

If you missed this great game, never fear, as it was only the first game of the season and the Lady Potters will play 4 more, Friday, Nov. 23rd – Saturday, Nov. 24th, at the PotterDome, at the Morton Thanksgiving Classic.  The Tournament field is filled with some great talent and will be a good challenge for the Lady Potters.  Teams include United Township (E. Moline), Champaign Central, Bishop McNamara and Peoria Richwoods (defending Class 3A State Champions).

Come out and get a look at the 2018-19 edition of the Morton Lady Potters and see what you think.  A great way to see some great holiday basketball, right here, in your favorite gym, the PotterDome!!!