Box Score

Galesburg, IL - The Prairie Fire dropped its Midwest Conference opener to Ripon College 92-72 Friday night at Memorial Gymnasium.

The Red Hawks (1-3, 1-0 MWC) went on a 16-0 run to take a 32-19 lead after Knox held a three point advantage at 19-16 on a basket by senior Lynn Mueller (Woodridge, IL, Downers Grove South) with 9:16 to play in the first half.  The teams played even the rest of the half and Ripon led 48-32 at the intermission.

The Prairie Fire (0-4, 0-1 MWC) cut the deficit to 57-46 at the 13:54 mark of the game, but that's as close as the hosts would get.

Knox connected on 8-of-20 shots from 3-point range in the opening half but made just 2-of-13 from inside the arc.  The Prairie Fire finished at 31 percent shooting overall, including 12-of-41 (29 percent) from long distance. 

Ripon hit 53 percent of its shots and outrebounded Knox 48-32. 

Senior Kelly Ricketts (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) led the Fire with 18 points. Senior Abby Owens (Grinnell, IA, Grinnell) added 15 and senior Steph Nunez (Mokena, IL, Lincoln-Way East) had 11. 

Erin Lind scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Red Hawks.  Chelsea Aicher had a double-double off the bench with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The Prairie Fire tries again for its first win of the season Saturday afternoon at home against Carroll University.  The game tips off at 2:00.

NOTES

Carroll University (1-5, 0-1 MWC) lost its Midwest Conference opener Friday night 61-57 at Lake Forest College.  The Pioneers have dropped three straight games going into Saturday afternoon's MWC contest against the Prairie Fire at Memorial Gym.  Carroll was led in scoring by senior post Janelle Groer, who had a game-high 25 points to go along with nine rebounds.  Sophomore G/F Emily DeNoyer added 19 points and nine boards for the Pioneers.

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