Defiance, OH - Defiance College outscored the Prairie Fire in the second half after trailing at halftime and came away with an 81-77 win on Thursday night in the 2011 Purple and Gold Tournament.

Knox held a 37-36 lead at the intermission after overcoming a 28-15 deficit at the 8:55 mark of the first half.  The Prairie Fire shot 55.6 percent from the field, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range.  Defiance (2-7), which snapped a five-game losing streak, shot 48 percent in the opening stanza.

Senior Joe Kozak (Park Ridge, IL, Maine South) scored the first bucket of the second half to give Knox a 39-36 lead.  The Yellow Jackets responded with a 25-14 run for a 61-53 advantage with 12:11 to play in the game.

The Prairie Fire fought back and reclaimed the lead at 66-65 with 5:21 remaining.  Knox held a one point lead at 71-70 with 3:12 to go when Defiance closed out the game on an 11-6 run to earn the victory.

The Prairie Fire shot 54.5 percent in the contest while the Yellow Jackets knocked down 54 percent in the second half and 51 percent overall.  Defiance outscored Knox from the foul line 17-8.

Kozak led four Prairie Fire players in double-figure scoring with 18 points.  Senior Tanner Carlson (Annawan, IL, Annawan) added 17, sophomore David Jones (Denver, CO, Colorado Academy) had 15 and senior Ben Wetherbee (Sydney, Australia, Woodstock) contributed 12.

Knox will try to snap a two-game slide Friday at 5:00 p.m. against Trine University (6-4), which lost to Lakeland College (WI) 88-75 in the first game of the tournament on Thursday.

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