Box Score
St. Norbert College got out of town with a win, but not before the Prairie Fire gave the Midwest Conference leader all it could handle and then some Saturday afternoon at Memorial Gymnasium.
The #17 Green Knights (12-2, 8-1 MWC) avoided a second straight loss by coming from behind to defeat the Prairie Fire 62-55. St. Norbert fell 59-52 Friday night at Illinois College, ending the Knights' nine-game winning streak -- which included seven consecutive victories in league play. St. Norbert has a one game lead over the Lady Blues and Monmouth College, which both own 6-2 MWC records after the weekend.
The Prairie Fire (4-10, 3-6 MWC) was seeking its second straight win after taking down Beloit College 65-56 at home Friday night. After one half of basketball against the Green Knights, a potential signature win for the program was alive and well with the Fire on top 30-27.
The two teams were even at 9-9 six minutes into the game when Knox scored the next six points to take a 15-9 lead with 12:17 to play in the opening half. The Prairie Fire took its biggest lead of the game, 20-13, on a free throw by senior Jenny Haskell (Murphys, California) at the 9:28 mark. St. Norbert on four different occasions cut the deficit to two, but the Fire managed to hold off the Knights and take a 30-27 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
The Prairie Fire made 12-of-23 shots (52 percent) in the first half while holding the Green Knights to 11-of-26 shooting (42 percent).
St. Norbert scored seven of the first 11 points of the second half to tie the game (34-34) for the fifth time, then took a 36-34 lead on a basket by Rachel Hermus with 14:21 to play. The bucket was the start of an 8-0 run that junior Kelly Ricketts (Galesburg, Illinois) snapped when she connected on a jump shot at the 10:25 mark to cut the SNC lead to 42-36.
The Prairie Fire closed the gap to 43-38 with 8:48 to go when the Knights scored five straight to extend the advantage to double figures at 48-38 with 7:14 on the clock. Knox fought back to cut the deficit to one, 50-49, on a pair of Haskell free throws with under four minutes to play.
The Green Knights scored their biggest basket of the game on Lauren Carman's offensive putback off of a miss by Hermus for a three point lead. St. Norbert hung on by making free throws, 8-of-8 over the last 2:30 and 10 straight going back to the 4:23 mark. The Knights made 17-of-20 foul shots in the game, including 13-of-14 in the second half.
St. Norbert held Knox to seven field goals in the second half (7-of-24, 29 percent) while making 10-of-24 shots of their own (42 percent). The Prairie Fire stayed with the Knights by also shooting well at the free throw line. Knox made 10-of-11 from the stripe in the second half and 15-of-19 (79 percent) overall. The Prairie Fire forced SNC into 20 turnovers while committing 22. The Green Knights won the rebounding battle 30-24.
Hermus scored 15 points to lead the St. Norbert offense. Stefanie Bunday and Erin Baganz scored 10 points each and combined for 16 in the second half.
Haskell scored a game-high 19 points for the Prairie Fire while sophomore Sara Johnson (Grinnell, Iowa) added 10 points and seven rebounds.
The team visits winless Lawrence University (0-13, 0-8 MWC) Friday night and Beloit College (4-8, 2-5 MWC) Saturday afternoon. The Prairie Fire defeated Lawrence 74-50 and Beloit 65-56 in the prior meetings at Memorial Gym.
