Galesburg, IL – Monmouth College broke open a close game early in the second half and defeated the Prairie Fire 97-80 on Wednesday at Memorial Gym.

Knox (7-13, 5-10) erased a 15 point lead by the Fighting Scots over the final 3:53 of the first half.  Monmouth (18-3, 13-3 MWC) extended a 25-22 advantage to 37-22 on a 12-0 run. 

The Prairie Fire responded with a 17-2 surge, including the last six points on back-to-back 3-pointers by sophomore Jessica Howard (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg), to tie the game at 39-39 with 34 seconds before the break.  The Scots snapped the run with a bucket four seconds before halftime for a 41-39 lead.

The Fighting Scots came out hot in the second half.  Monmouth used a 23-6 run over the first six minutes to take a 64-45 lead from which Knox couldn’t recover.

A basket with 8:08 to play gave the Scots their biggest lead of the contest at 80-56.

The Prairie Fire never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

The win was the sixth straight for Monmouth.

Leading Knox in scoring was sophomore Katie White (Peoria, IL, Notre Dame) with a career-high 13 points. Sophomore Becky Duffy (Chicago, IL, Northside Prep) added 12 points and senior Sara Johnson (Grinnell, Iowa, Grinnell) 11.

Paige Nord scored 20 points to pace the Scots on offense.

The Prairie Fire travels to Beloit on Saturday.  The tip-off is at 5:00 p.m.

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