Box Score
The Prairie Fire was unable to successfully continue the recent struggles of Ripon College Saturday.
Ripon College, which entered the game at Memorial Gym with just one win in its last 13 games. The Redhawks (6-14, 5-10 MWC) however, didn't play like a team that had struggled so badly and beat Knox 57-44 to sweep the season series after winning the first game at Ripon 64-49 on December 3.
After the teams struggled to find the range and were tied at 6-6 with 10:55 to go in the first half, the Redhawks put together a 17-2 run for a 23-8 lead with 5:45 to go in the first half. Kacie Cullen burned the nets for 15 straight points during the stretch, when she connected on four of her five three-point baskets in the game. Knox never did recover in the first half, shooting a frigid 28 percent (7-of-25), and trailed 30-15 at the intermission.
Ripon enjoyed a double-digit lead for most of the second half. The Prairie Fire made one serious run at the Red Hawks, cutting a 36-21 lead at the 17:05 mark to 36-29 with 15:06 to go in the game. Ripon responded with eight straight points over the next 2:30 to regain a 15 point cushion, 44-29. Knox managed to get as close as 10 (44-34) the rest of the way.
The Prairie Fire (5-14, 4-10 MWC) shot 30 percent, including 0-of-10 from three-point range, compared to 41 percent and 5-of-9 for the Redhawks.
Ripon's Cullen scored a game-high 19 points. Chelsey Aicher added 10.
Junior Kelly Ricketts (Galesburg, Illinios) paced the Fire with a double-double: 14 points and 11 rebounds. Junior Krystyna Williams (Evanston, Illinios) chipped in with 10 points and nine boards and Senior Jenny Haskell (Murphys, California) finished the game with 11 points. She also had eight of her team's 23 turnovers. The loss was the fourth straight for Knox and fifth in the last six games.
The Prairie Fire will try to get back on track when the squad travels to Illinois College to meet the Lady Blues ((11-8, 9-5). IC won the last match-up 74-56 January 29 in Galesburg. I.C. beat Lawrence University (0-20, 0-15) 58-36 last Saturday at home after falling to Beloit College (7-11, 5-8 MWC) 72-59 the previous night at Sherman Gymnasium. Illinois College has won three of its last four games and is 4-2 at home.
The Fire returns home Monday night to play Grinnell College (7-11, 6-8 MWC) in a game slated for a 5:00 tip-off. It's the "Play for the Cure" game for both teams as they wear pink t-shirts in an effort to raise awareness of and funding for cancer research.
