Bob Becker was up to serious foot-stompin’. Shoe leather collided with hardwood, ker-BOOM. Because the coach has reached that mid-life age when bifocals become necessary, it’s fun to see how the stompin’ and other dance moves affect his glasses. Today’s choreography had Becker removing the glasses, spinning them by an earpiece, and then, after staring termination holes through a purblind zebra, placing the glasses on the scorer’s table to keep them out of harm’s way.

The stompin’ had caused a referee of a sensitive nature to call a technical foul on the coach. Such calls can change a game. They can be dispiriting, or they can be inspiring. At the time, Becker’s team, the Morton High School Lady Potters, had a 12-point lead. Five minutes later, the lead was down to three.

“I might have cost us there,” the coach said. “But the kids overcame it.”

They overcame it to win, 58-45. They overcame it with sensational play when only sensational play could do it. A good, big, aggressive Lincoln team – winner of 13 of 19 games – closed to 46-43 with six minutes to play. But the Potters would not allow Lincoln another inch.

First, Becker’s decision to switch from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone and then a box-and-1 stopped Lincoln’s offense dead. Lincoln had rallied on the strength of five second-half 3-pointers. Once Morton confused the Railsplitters with the new defenses, they went 0-for-4 on 3’s the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Potters won as they so often do, by making a big run at a killing time. From that 46-43 moment, they scored the next 10 points. That 10-0 run propelled the Potters to their 16th straight victory, 19th in 20 games this season, and 34th in 35 games reaching back to last season.

Caylie Jones began the game-deciding run with two free throws coming after she was fouled getting an offensive rebound. Lindsey Dullard followed with a 3-pointer from the left side. Then the Potters, per a long-established late-game formula, ran off five successive free throws – two by Josi Becker and three by Tenley Dowell. One of those Dowell free throws came after another Jones rebound, that one when she grabbed Becker’s missed layup and got the ball out to Dowell.

“Caylie was great all day,” Becker said, “giving us offensive rebounds that meant extra possessions and opportunities.” One such opportunity, cashed in, saved three points when it seemed three points had been wasted. Fouled on a 3-point shot, Peyton Dearing missed all three free throws. On the last one, the 5-foot-8 Jones worked inside the bigger Lincoln people for the rebound. She passed the ball to Dearing, who moved it out to Josi Becker, who made a 3-pointer from the right arc. State champion teams do that kind of thing, or, to quote Jones, “We stayed calm when they got it down to three and put pressure on us.”

A brief explanation of Bob Becker’s technical foul: he had seen his sophomore guard, Maddy Becker, dribble into a trap. He signaled for a timeout to save her. Before a referee could grant the timeout – “He was looking straight at me,” Becker said – another official called a jump ball that gave the possession to Lincoln.

Thus, ker-BOOM!

Thus, a technical.

Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and all this Potters success comes at a good time. They have embarked on a stretch games so challenging that the Morton coaches call it “The Gauntlet” and so important to late-season growth that Becker said, “This is when you get ready to win a state championship.”

He’s talking about these mid-January games in the Galesburg Martin Luther King Winter Classic. These games ask the Potters to play three times in four days on successive weekends. In the last three seasons, when the Potters have won state championships, they have gone 4-1, 4-1, and 5-0 in the MLK tournament.

Today the Potters began their run through that gauntlet with a doubleheader sweep, 52-16 over LaSalle-Peru in the morning followed by the afternoon victory over Lincoln. Monday afternoon they play another MLK game, at Peoria High. And the way things are going, the Potters have good reason to think of an unprecedented fourth straight girls’ state title. In their three championship seasons, the Potters have come to the 20-game mark with records of 19-1, 19-1, and 18-2. With today’s two victories, the Potters are again 19-1. (Two boys teams have won four in a row, Peoria Manual and Chicago Simeon.)

The 10:30 a.m. game against LaSalle-Peru was enough to make a guy wonder why he got out of bed. Morton was up 31-4 midway through the second quarter. The game’s only memorable moment came late. Players on the bench asked Tenley Dowell if she’d please bring them Gatorade.

So the team’s leading scorer gathered up four paper cups, balancing them as she walked to the training room. She came back with three filled cups and had to make a second trip for the fourth. As to why she couldn’t carry all four at once, Dowell blamed her inexperience at such work: “I’m not, like, a waiter.”

She is, however, a scorer, leading Morton with 15 in this game. Dullard had 14, Dearing 5, Claire Kraft and Courtney Jones 4 each, Bridget Wood and Kassidy Shurman 3 each, and Josi Becker and Olivia Remmert 2 apiece.

Dowell led Morton in the Lincoln game, too, with 14 as four Potters reached double figures. Dullard had 13, Shurman 11 (all in the first half), and Caylie Jones 10. Becker scored 7, Dearing 3.

After the day’s work, Bob Becker made one note of how the Potters might improve.

He said, “I may need to get one of those straps to hold my glasses on.”

No popcorn? They moved the concession stand up. Then they discovered there was no popcorn in the building. Hey, the Pep Band is a state champ! The Lady Potters are state champs three times running! And there’s no popcorn for the multitudes gathered to hear the music – a powerful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner – and to see the girls beat Metamora, 55-43.

So the concession-stand folks sent a search squad out looking for emergency popcorn. WalMart had a special offer going. How much popcorn did Morton High School buy at WalMart? Every kernel the place had. And the concessionaires sold it all.

As constant readers know, I had inveighed against the foolishness of moving the concession stand from the ok-it-can-be-chilly-there entrance to a galaxy far, far away, practically in the Steak ‘n Shake drive-through in Normal. (Full disclosure: the concessionaires sell my book on the team, “The Unbelievables,” $10, cheap at twice the price. I have two dogs and two horses to feed. We need more than an occasional box of Milk Duds. So there’s that.)

Here’s how wise it was to move the stand back to the front of the gym.. They sold out of stuff. They sold all the plain M&M’s. For Saturday’s doubleheader – LaSalle-Peru at 10:30, Lincoln at 2:30 – they have to stock up again. They need more Milky Ways, more Skittles, and more Sour Patch Kids, whatever those may be. And popcorn. Lots.

Anyway, for the first quarter tonight, playing before that well-popcorn’d crowd, the Lady Potters were efficient on offense, merciless on defense, and in every way scary-good. After Metamora scored the first three points, Morton scored the next 18. They did it in three minutes and 23 seconds. They didn’t miss a shot, going 7-for-7, four of them 3-pointers. For an idea of how good that is, let’s do the arithmetic. At that pace for 32 minutes, the Potters would outscore Metamora, 171-0.

Calling the roll on that run: Tenley Dowell started it with a 3 from the left side. Josi Becker came with a 3. Dowell hit from 15 feet. Lindsey Dullard a 3 from the deep left corner. Becker a layup produced by a Dullard deflection on the Potters press. Five seconds later – five seconds! – Becker scored on another steal of an in-bounds pas. Dullard ended the run with her second 3.

So in a game the Potters would win by 12, the state’s No. 1-ranked Class 3A team built a 15-point lead in the first 5 minutes and 15 seconds. As counter-intuitive as it seems, in that stretch Metamora played well. They handled Morton’s press and they defended well on their own press and in a 2-3 zone. Yet such was Morton’s momentum from the get-go that the Metamorans had no chance. With as much as 2:45 left in the first quarter, my note: “Met good as can be, down 18-3.”

Though Metamora played the Potters mostly even from there out – never trailing by more than 17, once moving within 10 – Morton strolled home. Coach Bob Becker substituted freely throughout; all 14 Potters played as he rested people for the Saturday doubleheader (followed by a Monday game against Peoria High, all three games part of the Galesburg Winter Classic).

“They fought us from beginning to end,” Becker said of a team his Potters beat six weeks ago, 50-27. “They didn’t wilt or sneak away with their tails between their legs.” Mostly, Metamora’s big people inside did well. The Potters allowed more second-shot possessions than Becker liked. “They hurt us on the offensive board,” he said. In addition, the Metamora stars – Anne Peters and Reagan Begole – scored 12 points each, mostly from outside, to keep the Redbirds in the hunt.

The victory, Morton’s 14th straight, gives the Potters a 17-1 record (8-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference). Metamora is 9-9.

Morton’s scoring: Dowell and Dullard 17 each, Becker and Caylie Jones 7 each, Peyton Dearing 3, Addie Cox and Courtney Jones 2 each.

The Potters were not the night’s only stars. Once again the Heat delighted us. This time the 5th-grade girls scrimmaged: Katie Brock, Sophie Davila, Addyson Gallup, Julia Laufenberg, Katherine Linville, Isabelle Mc Cully, Anja Ruxlow, Bennett Swearingen, Ellie VanMeenen, and Ella Vannaken.

And that Pep Band! I am a musical illiterate. All I know is l loved the national anthem they did tonight. Luckily, the Potters have faithful fans, the Martins, Marilyn and Wade, and Wade has become my music correspondent. (He’s finding that out right here.) Wade recently wrote me:

“I got a kick out of the announcer acknowledging the MHS Pep Band at the last game by indicating the ‘State Champion MHS Band’ was playing for the ‘State Champion Girls Basketball Team.’

“This is absolutely true – the MHS Marching Band has been what is considered the ‘state champion marching band’ in their class (medium size schools) for the last 13 consecutive years. FYI, last month the MHS Band was selected as one of four high school marching bands to be accorded ‘world class status’ for the year 2017 by the John Phillip Sousa Foundation. In the 30+ year history of this award, only one other Illinois band has been so honored (and that was awarded 20 years ago to Marian Catholic – the #1 high school marching band in Illinois.)”

Now, if only we can get some popcorn for Saturday’s doubleheader . . .

 

 

 

MLP Interview Series – Volume III ‘SOPHOMORES’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lady Potter Studios is excited to present the MLP Interview Series for the 2017-18 Season.

To watch Volume III of this series click here:  ‘SOPHOMORES’ (Class of 2020)

This video interview series will interview players, coaches and alumni throughout the season.

I suspect the other seven Mid-Illini Conference teams soon will demand rules changes. They’ll ask that each of the Morton High School Lady Potters be required to strap on 10-pound ankle weights. Lindsey Dullard’s left hand will be tied behind her back. There’ll be a blindfold for Josi Becker. While shooting 3’s, Kassidy Shurman must balance a bowl of fruit on her head. Caylie Jones can go up for a rebound only after reciting the books of the Bible in reverse order. Tenley Dowell will wear combat boots and carry an umbrella.

Seems only fair.

The Potters are just too good for ordinary people.

They’re 15-1 for the season, 6-0 in the Mid-Illini. They’ve won the Class 3A state championship three straight years. They’re fresh off winning the State Farm Holiday Classic. On a 12-game winning streak, they’re ranked No. 1 in the state. In the last three seasons and this one, they are 115-9.

Tonight they ran off 24 straight points against Washington en route to a 53-26 victory. This came four days after they put a 47-0 run on East Peoria in an 84-11 romp. At halftime tonight they led Washington, 30-5, meaning that in their last six quarters they had outscored East Peoria and Washington 114-16. In two of those quarters, they threw 21-0 and 13-0 shutouts.

As measure of Morton’s dominance, consider that Washington may be the second-best team in the conference. It had lost once in six leagues games and was 12-3 overall. Yet the Morton defenders limited Washington to 2-of-22 shooting in the decisive first half. Meanwhile, Morton went on that 24-0 run – with six Potters scoring – that lasted 10 minutes and 37 seconds and propelled them to a 43-11 lead.

That run began late in the first quarter with a Dowell 3-pointer and two free throws. Dullard added two free throws and Peyton Dearing made a nifty layup with 5 seconds left in the quarter.

The 13-0 shutout in the second quarter began with a Josi Becker steal and driving layup. Shurman knocked down a three from the deep right corner. Dowell, slashing to the rim, finished with a spin move and easy layup. Caylie Jones followed with a mid-range jumper, Dowell added a free throw, and Josi Becker closed out the scoring with a 3 from the right arc.

It was 30-5 and, blessedly, it was halftime, meaning all those folks who might have nodded off during that half snapped awake to watch the Morton Heat 3d-and-4th grade team play a full-court scrimmage.

I’m not sure who was on which team, nor am I sure it mattered, but you had to love ‘em all: Ashlyn Ahlers, Abby Brooks, Brenyn Cowley, Breanna Farney, Caela Myers, Natalie Nichols, Harper Nightingale, Izzy Ripka, Paige Seike, and Abby VanMeenen.

From 30-5, the Potters moved the score to 43-11 and it was then, three rows up in the bleachers, that a newcomer to Potters basketball asked, “Why is he acting like they need to score a lot in a hurry to catch up?”

By that she meant: Why was Bob Becker, the Morton coach, shouting instructions to his players as if he were not satisfied with a 32-point lead midway in the third quarter?

The answer: “Because it’s not tonight’s game he’s worried about. It’s not tonight’s 32 minutes. He’s playing a long game. This is like practice for games to come in the regional and sectional.”

How good are the Potters? Good enough in January to be thinking of February.

Good enough, too, that they’re in people’s heads.

“I think it’s mostly mental,” a Washington senior, Josie Morgan, said. “They’re three-time state champions. I think that’s like a mental block for us.”

Occasionally, I pay attention to somebody on the other team. Tonight it was Morgan. She’s a gritty little player, a watch-charm guard, 5-foot-2, good with the ball, good shooter from outside and on drives, aggressive defender. Here’s how good I think she is. A foot taller, she’d be Tenley Dowell.

Anyway, Morgan made her first shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the right side that gave Washington a 3-2 lead 40 seconds into the game. After that, often guarded by the 6-footers Dowell and Dullard – they’re the human form of that alleged “mental block” – Morgan missed her next nine shots. She finished 3-for-12.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 22. Dullard had 8, Shurman and Caylie Jones had 6 each, Becker had 5, and Courtney Jones, Bridget Wood, and Dearing had 2 each.

If you don’t want to read all this, and who can blame you, just know that the Morton High School Lady Potters beat East Peoria tonight, 84-11. It wasn’t that close.

The first suggestion of the night’s nature came at 6:21 p.m. According to my iPhone, that’s when I texted a friend in a distant place to let her know how my evening at the Potterdome was going.

I typed, “Wow, am I bored. At the Jayvee game. It’s 51-18. And there’s too much salt on the popcorn.”

Too much salt, and again the customers had to walk and walk and walk to reach the concession stand, which again had been moved from its once-convenient spot near the gym entrance to a galaxy far, far away.

I love mothers. I had a mother myself. But, after the popcorn, I noticed I was in a row of bleachers dedicated mostly to mothers. They were not there to debate tactics and strategy and the glory of the Lady Potters’ full-court press. They had come to watch their fourth-grade daughters – a Morton Heat travel squad – play at halftime of the varsity game. The mothers were lovely and they were young and I texted my friend, “I am now surrounded by mothers younger than my shoelaces.”

By then the varsity game had started.

“M 24-2 at quarter,” I texted, the Morton High School Lady Potters leading East Peoria.

And “47-4 at half.”

Then came a blessed respite. The Heat’s fourth-graders skipped onto the court. They were darling. They ran 3-on-3 drills. They threw up a few shots, they made a few. Their names were Ruby Brubaker, Ella Durbin, Isabella Finch, Audrey Harkins, Gabriella Hutchinson, Lucy Kaufman, Caitlin Magnuson, Mabry Robeen, Andrea Salazar, and Harper Strube.

Alas, the varsity game resumed.

To my distant friend, I texted, “After 3 here, it’s 68-4.”

About then, the photographer Don Pyles showed up. He’s at every Potters’ game. He aimed a big lens at me. I had given up on taking meaningful notes. I had my pen clenched between my teeth. Don liked the sportswriter-in-pain portrait.

Look, the Potters came in with a 14-1 record. The East Peoria were 1-14. The Potters did what an outstanding team is supposed to do to a gawdforsaken team. They stood on their necks. It was 22-0 before East Peoria got a shot off. It was 22-0 and East Peoria hadn’t seen their rim. Against the Potters’ relentless, scrambling, merciless defense, East Peoria committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter, doing them in this order: an over-and-back violation, a failure to get up-court in 10 seconds. 5 seconds without moving at the basket, 5 seconds again, a steal, another steal, traveling, a pass out of bounds, 5 seconds, 5 seconds, (that’s four!), and one more steal.

It reminded me of a John McKay quote. The great football coach had seen his NFL team, en route to a winless season, lose yet another game in yet another miserable way. He was asked, “What do you think of your team’s execution?” McKay said, “I’m in favor of it.”

Of all the fun things the Potters did tonight, my favorite came when they led 58-5 in the third quarter. East Peoria clanged a shot. Josi Becker, the Potters’ 5-foot-3 point guard, grabbed the rebound – actually going over her taller, younger sister, 5-5 Maddy, and snatching the ball away. Even as Josi turned to sprint up-court with the ball, she did it smiling. At the end of the court-length drive, Josi bounced a nifty pass to Caylie Jones for a layup.

Pretty soon, it was 73-6 with the Potters on a 47-0 run.

My friend texted, “Boring? How do you write about that?”

“Briefly,” I said.

So I’m done.

Morton’s scoring: Lindsey Dullard and Tenley Dowell 15 each, Josi Becker 12, Maddy Becker 9, Bridget Wood 8, Megan Gold 6, Peyton Dearing and Courtney Jones 4 apiece, Kassidy Shurman 3, and 2 each by Addi Cox, Claire Kraft, Caylie Jones, and Kathryn Reiman.

The Morton Lady Potters had a historic State Farm Holiday Classic (SFHC) experience this year. The SFHC is a 64 team tournament (32 Girls teams/32 Boys teams) and is a 4-day gauntlet of games, sponsored by State Farm, in Bloomington/Normal.  The tournament attracts some of the best girls & boys high school basketball teams in the state and the Lady Potters have participated in the State Farm Classic each year, since 2006.  Prior to this year, the Potters had been in the Championship game three times (2006, 2014, 2016).  Morton placed 2nd in each of those years and had never hoisted the Championship trophy… until now!

 

The Lady Potters started tournament play in historic fashion, by defeating Chicago North Lawndale (86-26).  They set all-time tournament records in their game vs North Lawndale for the ‘Most Points Scored in a Qtr (36pts)’, ‘Largest Margin of Victory (60 pts)’, and the ‘Most Consecutive Points Scored (48)’.  This was the same school, but not the same team, that Morton had faced twice two years ago.  Their first meeting with North Lawndale happened to be in the 2015 SFHC, where the two teams set another record for the ‘Longest Game Ever Played’.  That was a 4 OT thriller that went North Lawndale’s way.  Morton then beat North Lawndale, later that season, in the State Championship game.

 

In the Quarter Finals, the Potters faced a young, athletic and feisty team in the Normal West Wildcats.  With starters Josi Becker and Caylie Jones battling early foul trouble, Morton got a big lift from their first reserve players that helped wear down the Wildcat regulars.  Despite a few threats from the Wildcats, the Lady Potters maintained a lead though the entire game and Josi Becker helped cement victory making 8 of 8 free throws to close the game.  Tenley Dowell lead the Potter scoring with 17 points, and Josi Becker and Lindsey Dullard each added 10 points for the Potters, while Caylie Jones & Courtney Jones, combined for 13 points and 13 rebounds to help Morton defeat Normal West 63-49.

 

The Lady Potters would next play the Chicago St. Ignatius Wolfpack in the Semi-Final game.  St. Ignatius is a well coached, high energy, tough Class 4A team from the Chicago area and they were not about to back down against the Potters.  Every time Morton would begin to make a run, St. Ignatius would answer and did just enough to to hang around going into the final quarter.  Morton had enough of a lead in the closing minutes to play keep away from St. Ignatius and defeated the Wolfpack 51-38 to advance to their 3rd State Farm Holiday Classic Championship game in the last 4 years.  There they would face their first opponent of the year in the Normal Community High School Lady Iron.

 

Normal Community had beaten Peoria Richwoods 53-47 in their Semi-Final and have been playing very well throughout the tournament.  Anchored by a strong senior class, lead by Summer Stoewer (Sr), and Division 1 prospects Maya Wong (So), Abby Feit (Jr) and Kylee Schneringer (So), the Lady Iron are a formidable Class 4A opponent.  The Lady Potters know these players well and they know the Lady Potters as well.  The Lady Iron Seniors had never beaten Morton before and it was definitely on their bucket list.  Feit, Wong and Schneringer play on the same summer team and are great friends with Courtney Jones and Lindsey Dullard, so there were those bragging rights on the line as well.

 

The Lady Potters have the experience of playing in a lot of big games however, and were determined to not let this opportunity slip away from them.  The Seniors have had to settle for the SFHC 2nd place trophy twice before and watch someone else hold up the grand SFHC Championship trophy.  The Potters came out with laser focus in the first half of the Championship game and accurate shooting, unselfish play and execution on defense lead to a 15 point halftime lead.  The Potters extended the lead to as much as 22 points, early in the 2nd half, but much like the first game of the season, the Lady Iron started chipping away and building momentum.  Once the momentum shifted, every call seemed to go against the Lady Potters and in favor of the Lady Iron and Maya Wong, who had only 1 point until late in the 3rd Qtr woke up, scoring 10 of her 11 points in the final 10 minutes of the game.

 

Normal battled all the way back to within 5 points late in the game, but Morton stayed composed through the adversity and did what 3x State Champions do.  They only took good shots, trusted in their game plan and in each other, and made free throws and layups in the game’s closing minutes to capture their first ever State Farm Holiday Classic trophy, winning 61-56.

 

There were a lot of heroes in the game for both teams and the Lady Potters had a monster stat line from Sophomore Lindsey Dullard, with 18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks.  Caylie Jones made 6 of 7 attempts for 13 points and added 4 assists while taking 2 charges defensively.  Tenley Dowell added 12 points, including a huge drive for a layup late in the game that stalled Normal’s ferocious comeback attempt and was selected to the SFHC All-Tournament Team.  Josi Becker once again stepped up and knocked down huge free throws at the end of the game to secure the win.  Becker finished with 10 points, 5 rebounds & 5 assists and Kassidy Shurman hit 2 big threes.  Abby Feit (Normal) led all scorers with 19 points, but the Potters limited the University of Evansville recruit to only 3 rebounds.

 

Once again the Morton Community and Potter fans really stepped up big time to come and support the Lady Potters in the Championship game and throughout the tournament.  The Lady Potter “Storm Troopers” braved freezing temperatures and terrible travel conditions to come cheer on the Potters.  Thank you to all Potter fans for supporting the girls!

 

At some point late in the storm, Bob Becker’s glasses came off. They clattered against the floor and he had to chase them down. From where I was, seven or eight rows up in the bleachers, I couldn’t tell what caused the glasses to fly off. Becker had been in a state of discontent rising to outrage on its way to volcanic activity. Maybe he stomped a foot at a cursed zerbra as he whipped his head sideways in disbelief and caused the glasses to go spinning off his face. Or maybe the glasses had decided to leap to safety before they, too, melted down.

So I asked the coach a question. “Your glasses?”

He answered. “I’m an idiot.”

He said it with a smile, a winner’s smile, for in his team’s locker room he had held high a gorgeous trophy and told the Morton High School Lady Potters that they had done “something that’s never been done” in the program’s history.

What Tracy Pontius and Brooke Bisping never did, what Sarah Livingston and Kait Byrne never did, what Chandler Ryan and Brandi Bisping never did — all those stars never did it – it now has been done by Tenley Dowell, Josi Becker, Caylie Jones, Kassidy Shurman, Lindsey Dullard, Courtney Jones, Megan Gold, Peyton Dearing, Maddy Becker, Bridget Wood, Olivia Remmert, Addi Cox, Kathryn Reiman, and Claire Kraft.

They won the State Farm Holiday Classic. Three times before, first in 2006 and twice in the last three seasons, Becker’s teams had been runners-up in the Classic, one of Illinois’ most prestigious holiday tournaments. This time the Potters defeated Normal Community, 61-56, for the championship.

Once a rout created by Morton’s near-perfect performance through two and a half quarters, Normal Community transformed the game into a hold-your-breath thriller.

Morton led by 22 points midway through the third quarter. But Normal Community’s aggressive trapping defense and all-out drives to the rim cut the lead to 5 points with two minutes to play. In the locker room, as Becker raised the big trophy overhead, he told his Potters they were “a great team” that had “weathered their storm in the second half,” a storm testing the Potters’ resolve and poise over the game’s last 12 minutes.

Let’s cut to the chase. It’s 53-48, Morton, with two minutes to go. For almost nine minutes, the Potters had scored only one field goal. (They’d made nine buckets in the game’s first nine minutes.) So precise against a trapping defense only the night before when they toyed with Chicago St. Ignatius, this time the Potters came apart under pressure. Four times against the Normal Community defense they lost the ball without getting a shot, twice on five-second violations, once on a double-dribble call, and once on a traveling. (The wonder, I guess, is that Becker didn’t offer his glasses to the referees, who were seeing things unseen by Potter people.)

Anyway, caught in that storm, Morton needed a hero. It needed someone who could make something out of nothing. It needed someone willing to drive at full speed at the Normal Community defenders and dare them to stop her. It needed a big play. Here came Tenley Dowell. She came down the lane’s right side. To avoid a defender halfway down the paint, Dowell did a step right. In full flight, she put up a shot softly, put up with a shooter’s perfect touch, the ball kissing the board and falling in. Fouled on the move, Dowell made the free throw. The lead was then 56-48 with 1:41 to play. It felt safe to resume breathing.

However stormy the second half was for the Potters, the first half was sunshine and balloons. It was their most impressive performance of the season at both ends. Never forcing a shot, letting everything happen out of ball movement, Morton made 15 of 24 shots in the half; that’s 62.5 percent. They scored inside, from mid-range, and from downtown (six 3-pointers, three by Lindsey Dullard, two by Kassidy Shurman). Caylie Jones not only made 4 of 5 shots (two from 17 feet), she drew two charges. With Dowell and Josi Becker dogging their every step, Normal Community’s two leading scorers all season, Maya Wong and Summer Stoewer, managed only six shots and four points in the half.

Dullard led Morton’s scoring with 18. Jones had 13, Dowell 12, Josi Becker 10. Shurman had 6 and Megan Gold 2.

Bob Becker was thrilled to win, at last, a State Farm Holiday Classic. He was happy to get his hands on that golden trophy in the shape of a basketball: “It will look great in the trophy case.” But he didn’t so much as pretend to be satisfied with the accomplishment.

Remember, he said, the Classic is a “mid-season, holiday,Christmas tournament.” It’s not the State Tournament that his teams have won three years in a row. No girls team has ever won four straight.

“We’ve got bigger and better things in store,” he said.

When the Morton High School Lady Potters are ahead late in a game, as they were in tonight’s 51-39 victory over Chicago St. Ignatius, it’s fun to watch what they do. They make people crazy. They play keep-away. Desperate defenders scramble after the ball. It’s here, it’s there, and by the time defenders figure out where the damn ball went, it’s gone somewhere else. You’ve seen cats chase their tails. It’s like that, only with a basketball.

The Potters spread the floor. Four players go to the corners of the court. One, Caylie Jones, takes up a spot above the free throw line. There she becomes the center of all ball movement. Now it’s a roulette wheel, the ball spinning around that center and where it stops no one knows. Trapped out front, Josi Becker, or Tenley Dowell, or Kassidy Shurman, gets rid of the ball by throwing it to Jones in the middle.

“My job then is ‘catch and look opposite,’” Jones said. If she takes a pass from her left, she looks to move the ball to someone in the right corner. Then it comes back out to the front and the wheel keeps spinning, the cat keeps chasing, and on this night the St. Ignatius people became frustrated and breathless. “Burned,” said their coach, Cara Doyle, shorthand for burned out and, perhaps, burned up by the futility of chasing the spinning ball.

The victory put the Potters in the championship game of the State Farm Holiday Classic for the third time in four years. Bob Becker, the Morton coach, said, “We’re right where we want to be.” With a chance to win the Classic for the first time, they will play Normal Community, an upset winner over previously undefeated Peoria Richwoods tonight. Morton beat Normal Community five weeks ago, 55-49.

Though the victory was Morton’s 10th straight and gives the team a 13-1 record, the issue seemed in doubt even three minutes into the fourth quarter. The Potters’ lead, once as large as a dozen points, had been reduced to five at 39-34. St. Ignatius may not have known it, but it was about to enter the minutes when Morton drives people nuts.

Whatever happened before no longer matters. That Morton went on a 10-0 run in the first quarter to establish a cushion it never lost, forget it. That St. Ignatius came back with a barrage of 3-pointers – it was 7-for-15 from behind the arc while Morton was 3-for-17 – forget that, too. The game would be won or lost in the frenetic last three minutes when Morton went to its spread-delay game.

In those three minutes, Morton made no turnovers against the St. Ignatius pressure. The Potters controlled the ball so well that St. Ignatius did not get the ball long enough to take a shot – not a single shot – until there were 21 seconds left. The Chicagoans had been forced into such a mad rush that they committed four straight turnovers. For those three minutes, the game was essentially confined to Morton’s end of the floor.

Meanwhile, unable to take the ball from Morton, St. Ignatius had to foul. The Potters’ last eight points and 10 of their last 12 came on free throws. It is a tried and true formula: get the lead, protect the ball, make free throws. It has helped the Potters win three straight state championships and it now has them on the brink of a Classic title that has eluded them for a decade and more.

So, yes, I wanted to see tonight’s game.

Snow?

What snow?

Snow was coming down, maybe six inches worth on the way, when a friend asked if I intended to drive to Normal for the game.

The things some people ask.

You know the postman’s motto. “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

So, c’mon. Snow?

“Take an emergency bag, please,” she said in a text. “Blankets, water, snacks, and a flashlight in case of accident delays and/or your car dies en route.”

Do Christmas cookies count as snacks?

They did today. Santa’s cookies went into the back seat with boots, socks, a blanket, a flashlight, and gloves. I even found my AAA card. I was prepared for disaster. I told my friend, “Now I’m going to be disappointed if I don’t drive into a ditch.”

So I made it there and back, and that was a good thing, and it was good to see the Potters play well. Besides distributing the ball flawlessly under that great pressure late in the game, Caylie Jones was a major factor rebounding. Lindsey Dullard again excelled inside defensively. Tenley Dowell was an offensive force, gliding through defenses, and with Courtney Jones she starred defensively. They shared duties on St. Ignatius’s star guard, Molly Gannon, who had scored 20 and 17 points in her team’s first two Classic games; Gannon had only nine against the Potters, none in the game’s decisive last 11 minutes. “They did a great job on Molly,” Doyle, the St. Ignatius coach, said. “They were all over her.”

• Dullard led Morton’s scorers with 14, Dowell had 11, Josi Becker 10. Coufrtney Jones scored 5, Caylie Jones 4, Maddy Becker 3, and Megan Gold and Kassidy Shurman 2 each.

Uncharacteristically, the Morton High School Lady Potters lost most of a big lead in the fourth quarter tonight before remembering how they win important games. Once up by 20, they led by only seven with two minutes to play. Then they made 9 of 10 free throws – eight in a row by Josi Becker – to finish a 63-49 victory over Normal West and advance to the semifinals of the State Farm Holiday Classic, a prestigious tournament the three-time state champions have never won.

Well, that’s some dull reporting.

Let’s get to the part about Caylie Jones with the magic handles on that fast break.

With the Potters leading by 17 and seemingly nothing to worry about, here came Jones with the basketball, running free at midcourt. Ahead and on the left wing was Kassidy Shurman. The two of them ran at one poor defender back-pedaling in the paint. So what’s a girl to do in this case?

“I’ve told them that because they can’t dunk,” their coach, Bob Becker, said, “they need to do something fancy with the ball to get the crowd into the game.”

On a 2-on-1 break with a minute left in the third quarter, Jones had some fancy ball-handling on her mind.

“Summers in AAU, my dad is always telling us to do fancy stuff with the ball,” the Potters’ senior said. “So when I saw we were 2-on-1 . . .”

On the run, she dropped a behind-the-back pass to Shurman – just tapped the right side of the ball, really, sending it around her back to Shurman, who by then was under the hoop. The crowd in the Normal Community High
School gym didn’t catch on immediately. But the Potters’ bench did, everyone bouncing up in anticipation of Shurman’s layup.

Alas, the defender recovered and forced Shurman to get rid of the ball, and all was for naught as the possession fell apart.

Still, that daredevil moment was symbolic of the Lady Potters’ growing confidence as they near the regular season’s halfway point. On a nine-game winning streak, they are 12-1. They have won those nine games by margins of 23, 1, 27, 26, 15, 36, 18, 60, and 14. Perhaps the one-point, buzzer-beater victory over the Monroe Cheesemakers, a top-tier Wisconsin team, gave the Potters real reason to feel good about themselves. In any case, after tonight’s victory over a solid Normal West team, Bob Becker said words he loves saying: “We are being consistently excellent.”

Throwing out the 86-26 cakewalk with Chicago North Lawndale, the Potters yet are averaging 60.5 points in the streak while giving up 40.5.

Now, about deflections . . .

Deflections? You may ask, “Deflections?” I love deflections. A defender knocks away a pass. It messes up the other guys’ offense. It gives every defender reason to get serious. It makes every ball-handler wonder if they’ll ever complete a pass without interruption.

Yes, deflections. Coaches keep track of deflections because they show who’s really working on defense, sliding into passing lanes, anticipating the offense’s movements.

So, I asked Brooke Bisping, an assistant coach who kept track of such things tonight, “How many deflections for Lindsey?”

Lindsey Dullard is a 6-foot-1 sophomore best known for her shooting. She can drill it from downtown.

“Ten,” Bisping said.

“And five or six steals,” the coach said.

“And two blocks,” Bisping said.

This, then, is to introduce Lindsey Dullard, defensive prodigy. As the point on the Potters’ 1-2-2 full-court press, Dullard is a formidable obstacle.

“She’s using her length better and better,” Becker said. “She’s hard to throw around or over.” When the Potters’ pair of 6-footers, Dullard and Tenley Dowell, conspire in the press to trap a ball-handler, the ball-handler is in big trouble because as soon as she throws a pass out of that trap, if she can throw one at at all, it’s subject to theft by another Potter.

“I felt more confident on the defensive end tonight than on the offensive end,” Dullard said. Then she smiled as she said, “Defense kind of made up for my offense tonight.”

And when one of your team’s best shooters is liking her work on defense, a coach is liable to say what Bob Becker said of Dullard tonight: “When she blossoms, she’s going to be even more special than she has been.”

Journalistic responsibility requires that mention the Normal West fourth-quarter rally. Down 20, they cut Morton’s lead to seven at 52-45 with 2:05 to play. They did it mostly with driving layups that were contested poorly by Morton’s defenders. After that, Morton ended the game on an 11-4 run, mostly on Josi Becker’s free throws.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Dullard and Josi Becker had 10 each. Courtney Jones scored 9, Shurman 6, Caylie Jones 4, Megan Gold 4, and Maddy Becker 3.

In 10 minutes and 21 seconds of the first half tonight, the Morton High School Lady Potters outscored Chicago North Lawndale, 48-0. At halftime it was 55-6. Game’s end, 86-26.

That set of bizarre numbers is not even the most bizarre thing about the Potters’ opener in the State Farm Holiday Classic.

The weird part came during pre-game warm-ups.

I’ve made a habit of watching the Potters’ opponents warm up. The star is usually easy to find. She’s an ego kid. She sets herself apart, perhaps by shoes that don’t match her teammates’, certainly by her cool, aloof swagger. The hardest part of my little game is deciding which five girls are the starters. Get three right, I give myself a B+.

Tonight, during North Lawndale’s warm-ups, I spotted all five starters of the Lady Phoenix.

I could attribute my A+ success to decades of keen-eyed observation of basketball players.

Or I could tell the truth and say North Lawndale dressed only five players from what once was a 14-player squad.

I’d never seen a game in which one team had only five players.

The Chicagoans’ coach, DeWan White, explained: “We had four young ladies who quit. Two other young ladies are injured. One has Lupus. And two are academically ineligible.”

So North Lawndale brought the surviving five to Bloomington-Normal to play four games in four days.

“I wanted to bring up some freshmen,” White said, “but their parents wouldn’t let them make the trip.”

Even early in the season, at full-but-quickly-declining strength, North Lawndale had its problems. It had lost 11 of its 12 games. And tonight its five players were asked to go against the three-time state champion Potters, who came in with 14 players and a 10-1 record.

The full measure of the mismatch was evident early. After North Lawndale tied it at 2-2, Morton scored the next 48 points. I won’t even tell you how they did it, other than to say the Potters were good at basketball in many ways. Example: Lindsey Dullard once finished an alley-oop play off a Josi Becker cross-court pass that she caught at the top of her leap and banked in. Meanwhile, North Lawndale was bad at basketball in all ways. Example: a Phoenix once put up a baseline shot that hit the back of the backboard, yes, it did.

Morton’s 36 points in the first quarter set a Holiday Classic record. Its 55 points at halftime set a record. Its 39 field goals for the game set a record. Its 86 points for the game were two short of the record.

Of Morton’s 14 players, 13 scored and the other, Olivia Remmert, missed such an easy layup that she was seen laughing halfway through the shot and laughing still as she fell to the floor. Dowell led the scoring with 25 (13 in the first three minutes). Maddy Becker had 10. Peyton Dearing and Courtney Jones each had 8. Dullard and Addie Cox had 6 apiece, Bridget Wood and Kassidy Shurman 5 each, Megan Gold 4, Kathryn Reiman 3, and 2 each by Josi Becker, Caylie Jones, and Claire Kraft.

Afterwards, I had one more question for the North Lawndale coach. What did he tell his five girls before the game?

“I told them to play hard, have fun, respect the game, and enjoy the game,” White said.

All that, they did.

I sought out Jamia Lockheart. She is a little guard who handled the ball 95 percent of the time against Morton’s pressure defenses tonight and led her team in scoring with nine points.

Two years ago, she was a benchwarmer on the North Lawndale team that defeated Morton in this State Farm tournament, 48-46, in four overtimes. That team then lost to the Potters in the state championship game, 58-41.

“Back then, De’Asa Almon made three buzzer-beater 3’s for us to win,” Lockheart said. Yes, Morton remembers those 3-pointers. Almon is a senior now, the one with Lupus. “Tonight was tough,” Lockheart said. “Morton’s a great team with a great program and even beating us like that, they showed good sportsmanship all night. They helped us up if we fell. It was tough, but it was fun.”

I stood with Lockheart outside the North Lawndale dressing room. Three of her teammates stood in the doorway, eavesdropping on the interview, cracking up at the sight of Lockheart, the star. When we finished, the teammates set up a raucous cheer. Turns out, apparently , it’s possible to lose by 60 and have fun.

That said, it’s more fun to win by 60, and the victory sends Morton into a second-round game Thursday night against Normal West at the Normal Community High School gymnasium. Game time, 7 p.m.

 

 

 

Winning Mid-Illini Conference Championships in 8 of the last 10 years, the Morton Lady Potters have proven to be the team to beat for the past decade.  They have been particularly dominant the last 3 seasons where the Potters won 12 games, 13 games and 14 games in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.  Last Season (2017), the Potters were a perfect 14-0 in the Mid-Illini and have picked up where they left off by starting 5-0 this year.  The current group of Seniors (Class of 2018) are 44-3 (and counting) in conference play over the course of their Morton careers, and the Lady Potters have won 24 straight Mid-Illini Conference games.  The Lady Potter Varsity Sophomores

have never lost a conference game and the Juniors have only lost 1 conference game in their Varsity careers.  So you can understand if winning conference games is on the ‘to be expected list’ if you are a Morton Lady Potter.  Expected, but not taken for granted.

These Lady Potters don’t really pay attention to stats like these fortunately.  They have had this level of success, because they take the perspective that anyone can beat you on any given night if you don’t lace them up tight and come to play every game (a lesson learned in their last Mid-Illini Conference loss at East Peoria on January 2nd, 2016).  I believe that loss to East Peoria, has paid big dividends in terms of mentally preparing for every conference game since then.  The fact that they haven’t lost a Mid-Illini game since that time is the basis for my theory.  Of course the Lady Potters have also won 3 State Championships over that same period of time, so they are not only beating conference opponents, but their conference results have been particularly impressive.

So imagine you are a Mid-Illini Conference team and you see that your next game is against the Morton Lady Potters.  Unless you played on the Varsity team at Canton in the 2014-15 season or the Varsity team at East Peoria in 2015-16, you have never beaten Morton.  Morton is the 3x Defending State Champions and are 110-9 since over the last 3 seasons and some change.  They are hailed each year as the Conference favorites and have a roster full of conference superstars.  This is kind of like playing UConn if you are Northeastern Nevada State.  Well I imagine you could take 1 of 2 approaches to your game against the Lady Potters.  You could conclude that you are definitely outmatched and just hope that the coach doesn’t make you run a wind sprint for every point that you lose by, or you could make it your Superbowl game.  By that I mean you play above and beyond the energy level you normally play at, with more passion than you have ever played with and accept the mission impossible of knocking off the invincible Morton Lady Potters.

As far as I have witnessed, since the start of the 2016 season, most conference opponents have taken the later approach.  The more Morton wins, the more teams want to beat them and the target on their back grows larger and larger.  Teams come out screaming out of the locker room, like a band of banshees, and play the first 5 minutes of the game like they have never played before.  Then at some point in the game, Morton displays several bursts of runs that put the game out of reach and ‘voila’, same result as the last half dozen times you faced the Lady Potters.

These Mid-Illini teams are not bad teams.  To the contrary, there are some very good teams in the Mid-Illini that have won preseason tournaments and have won more than a majority of their games. Dunlap, Canton and Washington could be Sectional level teams.  They are good, but they just aren’t Lady Potter good. Morton is so strong at every position and they bring several players off the bench that would start for about any other school in the conference.  If it wasn’t for the political jockeying that goes on in the Mid-Illini coaches meeting at the end of the season, where each coach is lobbying to get one of their own players on all-conference teams, the 1st and 2nd Team All-Conference selections would be made up of at least half of the the Morton Lady Potters. But I’ll digress (for now).

Morton played Canton at Canton on Tuesday, December 19th.  Canton came into the game undefeated at 10-0 and feeling pretty good about their chances against the Lady Potters.  This Canton team was definitely using the 2nd approach mentioned above and were set to prove that they were ready, willing and able to take down the 3x Defending State Champs.  They packed their local gym (Alice Ingersol Gymnasium) for the game with rowdy townsfolk, parents and students , who didn’t want the to miss history in the making.  The local news reporter and photographer were in attendance, ready to document the triumphant night.  The night that the Canton Little Giants took down the State Champs.

Almost anyone that has had the ‘pleasure’ of playing Canton in Canton, knows that Canton gets some “benefits of the doubt” from the local officials. Those that their opponents rarely get.  In fact they are pretty infamous for this advantage and I have heard many people say that advantage is worth at least 10 points for Canton.  So if you are going to beat Canton, in Canton, you better be at least 11 points better and be up by double digits going into the 4th quarter.  Otherwise, the Canton factor can come into play.

Like most teams the Lady Potters have played this year, Canton jumped out of the gates playing with a lot of passion and energy.  They played Morton pretty close to even through the first half in fact.  They launched a lot of three pointers, and drove out-of-control to the basket time after time, hoping to get a foul called if their miracle shot didn’t drop.  Credit the Potters for staying composed and defensively efficient through the periods that Canton put together runs.  Both halves started with the officials (one in particular) rewarding Canton players for out of control play and penalizing the Potters in return.  Instead of letting that bother them, the Potters played their game.  Great ball movement, timely shooting of predominantly smart shots, unselfish play and solid defense eventually allowed the Lady Potters to pull ahead by 20 and they coasted through the final quarter.  Alas, the Canton faithful were foiled again by a score of 62-44.

Earlier that week, the Potters played an upbeat Pekin Lady Dragon team, that, like Canton, and Dunlap, came out with a lot of energy and were ready to take down the champs. They played the Potters even through the first 5 minutes. Then the lady Potters put on a couple 20 point runs that put away the Lady Dragons by the end of the 3rd quarter.  The final score was 72-36.

Next up for the Lady Potters is the State Farm Holiday Classic (in Bloomington Normal), which starts on December 27th and runs through December 30th.  This is a tournament that the Lady Potters have never won, but placed 2nd in last year and in 2015.  Always one of the most competitive tournaments in the country, this year’s State Farm Holiday Classic is once again loaded with talented teams.  Morton will start play

at 3pm on December 27th and face a familiar rival in Chicago North Lawndale.  You may remember that Chicago North Lawndale was the Potter’s opponent in the 2016 State Championship game.  Interestingly enough, the Lady Potters had lost to North Lawndale in 4 OTs in the State Farm tournament earlier that season.

Merry Christmas Lady Potter fans!!!!  Enjoy family and friends over Christmas and then make the short car ride to Bloomington Normal on for the State Farm Holiday Classic and cheer the Potters to victory.  There should be a lot of very good basketball games played at the tournament this year.

 

To see the bare score, 62-44, is to know nothing about the way the Morton High School Lady Potters defeated Canton tonight. To see an 18-point victory margin is to imagine a cakewalk. It’s to think the three-time state champions tossed their warmups onto the Alice Ingersoll court and the Canton girls fainted at the fearsome sight of the candy-striped laundry. For sure, during such a romp, the Morton coach, Bob Becker, would never need to raise his voice.

So who was that man standing in front of the Lady Potters bench? That gentleman casting a stern gaze on his players? That fellow with tendrils of smoke curling from his ears? Every coach has a burst-into-flames point, somewhere near 1020 degrees Fahrenheit, and this poor guy’s thermometer was at 911 and rising.

Well, yes. ‘Twas Bob Becker. It says here he had good reason to go hot under the collar. His team was blowing a big lead. And folks in the third row behind his bench heard the coach ask those players on the bench – they were his team’s stars – one question.

“Are you ready to play?” he said.

The inference, of course, was that they were on the bench because they had not played all night. They certainly played below their standards, let alone their expectations. Becker expects his team to dominate the first three minutes of any third quarter. Tonight those minutes belonged to Canton, and it seemed possible that the Little Giants, undefeated in nine games and playing before a raucous home crowd, might win this one.

When Becker asked that question, his team led 40-34. Twice it had frittered away big leads. His stars nodded yes, they were ready.

“Then prove it,” Becker said.

And he said it again, only this time in capital letters, “PROVE IT.”

Before reporting what they did given that ultimatum, I should say they had a chance to PROVE IT only because bench-warmers had come to the rescxue earlier.
It was 32-31 three minutes into the third quarter when Becker decided he’d seen enough of his starting five. He looked down his bench and sent every breathing soul into the game.

Well, not everybody. But he sent in three players who had not yet been in the game. He sent in Maddy Becker, Peyton Dearing, and Megan Gold.

First time she touched the ball, Maddy Becker threw in a 3-pointer from the right side. (In the jayvee game, the sophomore guard had scored 29 points.) After Gold forced a turnover, Becker made another 3, this one from the deep left corner. A fast- break layup by Lindsey Dullard made it 40-31. In one minute and 17 seconds, the Potters had outscored Canton, 8-0.

“Our bench gave us a big lift tonight,” Becker, the coach, said later. By game’s end, all 14 Potters had played, nine had scored and five had divvied up the team’s 10 3’s. Morton’s bench scored 16 points tonight.

So it was 40-34, Morton leading, when Becker sent his stars back into the game to prove they had come to play.

Prove it, they did. They went on a 19-3 run that produced a 59-37 lead with 4:04 to play.

It went like this:

The starters had been back in the game 13 seconds – 13 seconds! – when Josi Becker made a 3. An amazing in-the-paint pass from Caylie Jones then created a Tenley Dowell layup. With three seconds left in the third quarter, Josi Becker made another 3.

Fourth quarter: a Josi Becker layup, a Dowell 3, a Caylie Jones 17-footer, two free throws by Dowell and two more by Maddy Becker.

By then, Canton had capitulated. Its coach, Jessica Thum, removed her starters when it was 57-37. She later denied she did it because her players were exhausted (though they were) or because the game was out of reach (though it was) “I put in kids who usually play,” she said, although they had played only a few minutes tonight.

I asked her what happened to her team when it had moved within a point at 32-31 with 12 minutes to play, only to lose the rest of the way 30-13.

“We abandoned our game plan,” Thum said.

Canton’s game plan seemed simple. Put up 3-pointers and/or drive madly at the rim and hope to luck something in. At peak strength, that plan worked for Canton. Second half, ground to tremblings by Morton’s constant pressure at both ends, Canton’s helter-skelter dashes at the hoop became exercises in failure.

Thum was undismayed. As we sat in the bleachers afterwards, she said something that sounded like, “It’ll be a different outcome next time.”

I said, “What?”

“You can quote me,” she said. “It’ll be a different outcome next time.”

Playing unevenly, Morton had won on the road by 18 over a previously-undefeated team. So, yes, I guess the outcome could be different the next time. Morton might win by 25.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 17. Josi Becker had 16, Maddy Becker 8, Caylie Jones 6, and Dullard 4. Dearing, Kassidy Shurman and Courtney Jones had 3 apiece, Kathryn Reiman had 2.

This summer I wanted someone to dive off the high board at the Morton community pool with a basketball in hand. I asked three or four of the Morton High School Lady Potters if they’d volunteer for such a stunt. Only Claire Kraft said yes. She didn’t just say yes. She said, “YES!” She said, “I’LL DO IT!” She said it with enthusiasm suggesting, “Don’t you dare ask anybody else!”

So there’s a picture in my book about the 2016-17 season – “The Unbelievables” – of Kraft rocketing down a slide and flipping a basketball overhead. (She did the high board, too, but we liked the slide photograph more.) The picture captures the essential Claire Kraft. Even after an hour of high-board splashings before we went to the slide, she’s still smiling. The whole thing is a hoot.

I thought of that summer day with about a minute and a half to play in tonight’s 72-36 romp over Pekin at the Potterdome.

That’s when Kraft found herself with the ball at the top of the key. She was a foot behind the 3-point arc. Considering she’s maybe the 11th or 12th player on a 14-player roster . . .considering she’s a post player . . . considering a 3-point shot is the last thing she’s good at . . . considering she had scored two points this season, both on free throws . . . considering all that, it was memorable that the Potters on the bench rose as one, shouting, raising a ruckus, demanding that Claire Kraft put the rock up from downtown.

So she did.

“I was wide open,” she explained.

Alas, her shot was wide right. Airball.

Which caused her to smile and hustle back on defense. Such a hoot. To quote her teammate, Megan Gold, “Claire’s goofy, she’s fun, she’s light-hearted.” To quote her coach, Bob Becker, “If I’m mad at something in a game, I look down the bench to see Claire. I can’t be mad if I’m looking at Claire. She’s a great kid, just fun-loving.”

So, a minute later, the ball again came to Kraft, this time in the deep left corner, again a step outside the arc, and this time the bench wasn’t just cheering, people now were hopping up and down in anticipation of Claire Kraft’s first 3-pointer ever . . .

Even as Kraft held the ball in that corner, she knew what her teammates wanted. She was leaning toward the bench. She saw all nine of them, demanding she try again, and here’s what Claire Kraft did next . . .

She smiled, she laughed, and she passed the ball to someone else.

“I didn’t want to airball another one,” she said.

She could’ve airballed a dozen of them and done no harm on this night, for the Potters took the heart out of Pekin early and, to quote a country song, stomped that sucker flat.

After five minutes, Pekin led, 11-10.

Five minutes later, Morton led, 28-11.

That 18-0 run was built on defensive pressure that exhausted Pekin physically and psychically. Becker had put a note on his whiteboard: “Amped Up Def.” That, the Potters had. The last thing any Pekin player wanted was the ball. The ball became a magnet drawing two and three Potters to it in a mad rush to cause dicombobulation. The telling image of Pekin’s distress came early, less than six minutes into the first quarter. The Dragons’ star, Maddy Cash, bent double on defense. She clutched her shorts with both hands, resting until she remembered how to breathe.

The 18-0 run: Josi Becker a 3, Lindsey Dullard a 3, Dullard two free throws, Kassidy Shruman a 3, Peyton Dearing a 3 (notice a trend? The Potters had 11 3’s divvied among 7 players), Dullard a layup, Tenley Dowell a layup – all of this work done efficiently, confidently, and with ball movement, especially on the Dowell bucket, that reminded me of my second-favorite basketball team, the Golden State Warriors. It began with Shurman’s entry pass from the left arc to Caylie Jones on the left low block. Jones moved the ball three feet to Dullard in the paint. Dullard bounced it to Dowell on the right low block. Four passes done quickly and unhurried. Ball movement that left Pekin wondering what the hell just happened.

As if an 18-0 run wasn’t enough, the Potters did a 20-0 run to begin the second half – again with defense so good that Pekin made 12 straight trips without scoring. By then, the Potters led, 56-23.

Yes, yes. Pekin’s not much. A 20-0 run by the three-time state champions against an exhausted, not-much-good-anyway team is small reason to celebrate. Still, I saw one great reason: Tenley Dowell’s outside game is coming back. She made two 3-pointers in that killing run, the first time she has made two 3’s in a quarter since the season’s third game. Against the very best teams, Dowell needs 3’s to set up her slashing moves inside. After three straight games in which she hadn’t made a 3, Dowell now has made two 3’s in three of the Potters’ last four games.

Dowell led Morton’s scoring with 14. Josi Becker had 12, Dullard 9, Caylie Jones 8, Peyton Dearing 7, Kassidy Shurman 6, Maddy Becker and Bridget Wood 5 each, Kathryn Reiman 3, Courtney Jones 2, and Megan Gold 1.

Good basketball players can do things they didn’t expect to do when it’s the only way to do them. They invent stuff. It’s more than invention, actually. It’s doing something unusual in the only way it can be done. I’m thinking of a Courtney Jones shot.

It came early in tonight’s game, long before the Morton High School Lady Potters finished a 55-40 victory over a good, stubborn, physical Dunlap team that had lost only once this season.

Jones had the ball near the Potters’ low right block. The sophomore had her back to the baseline. As she stepped toward the lane, she put the ball in her left hand. She did that to keep her body between the ball and a defender. Then, to the defender’s surprise, perhaps even to Jones’s surprise, she put up a left-handed shot from that right side.

Awkward.

Except for one thing.

The ball kissed the backboard softly and fell into the net. Fouled on the shot, Jones then added the free throw.

Once behind 7-1, the Potters made it 7-apiece with Jones’s invention at 1:58 of the first quarter – and never trailed again as they wore down the host Eagles and earned their largest lead at game’s end. The Potters are now 8-1 for the season, 3-0 in the Mid-Illini Conference. Dulap is 6-2, 2-1.

For Morton coach Bob Becker, the victory was meaningful. He called it “a good win, on the road, against a sectional-level team playing with the most confidence they’ve had in a while.” He cited a Twitter poll – this is, after all, a social-media world – that had cast Dunlap as the favorite tonight.

Whether Becker mentioned the Twitter nonsense to his players, I don’t know and didn’t ask. I do know that when the Potters were down 7-1 in the game’s first five minutes, they responded with something like, “Oh, yeah? How many state titles you guys got?” Or, as Becker put it, “We played with a little bit of a chip on our shoulders.”

So the back-to-back-to-back state champions went on a 16-1 run.

The run began, auspiciously enough, with a Tenley Dowell field goal, the kind of hard-earned basket the Potters will need to win big games against tough teams – a Dowell creation off a slashing drive on the left side. In traffic against Dunlap’s strong inside people, the junior star put up a 10-foot jumper for the Potters’ first basket. The game was 5 ½ minutes old. Fouled, Dowell added the one.

Then came the Jones act of ingenuity for the 7-7 tie, followed by a Josi Becker full-court dash with a steal for a 9-7 lead at the quarter.

The Potters made the game theirs in the second quarter. Again, Jones was big. Fouled while going up with an offensive rebound, she made two free throws. It was 11-8, then, when Josi Becker made back-to-back 3-pointers go give the Potters a 9-point lead that never shrank to fewer than four the rest of the way.

I mentioned Jones on offense. She also did good work on defense. Dowell started on defense against Dunlap’s senior star, Kai Koehler, a Division-1 recruit. When Dowell picked up two early fouls, Jones moved over on Koehler. Through the game-defining first half that gave Morton a 25-17 lead, Koehler, under Dowell-Jones pressure, was 0-for-8 from the field and had two points. Bob Becker said, “Courtney gave us a big lift.”

Jones is usually the first Potter off the bench. Tonight she was one of seven or eight off the bench as Becker ran in substitutes strategically and tactically for the full 32 minutes. Asked about the frenzy of subs coming and going, the coach said, “We need to keep all 14 kids engaged. If we’re going to make a deep run in the post-season, and I think we can, all 14 will have to contribute.”

No news in that, for by “deep run” the coach meant he’s thinking of a run at an unprecedented fourth straight state championship by a girls program.

“We have the bar set up here,” he said, and he raised a hand over his head.

Dowell led Morton’s scorers with 22, Josi Becker had 18, Lindsey Dullard 6, Courtney Jones 5, and Caylie Jones 4.

The Morton Lady Potters basketball team had a fun day on Saturday, December 10th, visiting residents at the Apostolic Christian Restmor nursing home.  The team had a Q&A session, shared cookies and coffee and helped facilitate a lively round of Bingo.  Both the team and residents enjoyed the experience.  This isn’t the first time the team has visited Restmor and likely won’t be the last as Restmor has some avid Lady Potter fans residing there.

Senior Caylie Jones had this to say about the visit to Restmor; “It is always special to visit the wonderful people at Restmor.  They all seem so happy to see us and we really appreciate their support of our team.”  Senior Kassidy Shurman added; “I think everyone at Restmor is always excited about spending time with us as young people and get a kick out of our smiles.  It’s a great feeling being able to spread some joy to the residents there.”