River Forest, IL – Dominican University built a double-digit lead in the first half and held on to beat the Prairie Fire 98-94.

The loss was the fifth straight for Knox (1-9), which put up 95 shots in the game, including 50 from 3-point range, and finished at 38 percent.  The Stars (7-4) shot a blistering 69 percent in the opening half and wound up at 60 percent overall.

Dominican raced out to a 25-11 lead with 12:38 to play in the first half.  Knox cut the deficit to four at 33-29 at the 7:01 mark.  The Stars responded with a 14-2 run for a 47-31 advantage with 3:18 to go in the half.

The Prairie Fire closed out the half with a 12-8 run to trim the Stars’ lead to 55-43.

Knox connected on 16-of-50 shots (32 percent), including 9-for-30 from 3-point range.  Dominican made 22-of-32 shots in the first half and went 4-for-7 from long distance.  The Stars outscored the Prairie Fire 7-2 from the foul line.

Knox cut the Dominican lead to 55-48 with nearly a minute gone in the second half.  The Stars built their lead back to 15 at 68-43 with 15:41 to play before the Prairie Fire made another run.

The Fire outscored Dominican 39-14 over the next 10 minutes to tie the game at 82-82.  The Stars reclaimed the lead at 84-82 with 5:07 remaining when Knox senior Steph Nunez (Mokena, IL, Lincoln-Way East) scored to force another tie at 84 apiece.

Sara Budz split a pair of free throws at the 4:30 mark to give the Stars an 85-84 lead that they would never relinquish.

Dominican drained 23-of-34 free throws in the contest.  The Prairie Fire struggled at the stripe, knocking down 8-of-21. 

Knox forced 36 turnovers by the Stars.

Nunez sank five 3-point baskets and scored a career-high 21 points to lead the Prairie Fire.  Joining Nunez in double-figures were senior Krystyna Williams (Evanston, IL, Evanston Township) with 16 points and first-year Jodi Marver (Northbrook, IL, Glenbrook North) with 11.

Ashley Oliver led five Dominican players in double-figures with 18 points.

Knox (1-9, 1-4 MWC), which tries to snap a five-game losing streak and win for the first time on the road this season,  resumes play on January 7 in a Midwest Conference contest at Monmouth College.  The Fighting Scots (5-5, 4-1 MWC) have lost two straight, both games in tournament play in California against Chapman University (66-62) and Occidental College (67-66).

Prior to the tournament, the Scots had won three straight games, all in league play, against Illinois College, Lawrence University, and Ripon College.

The tip off for the Fire's game at Glennie Gymnasium is at 3:00 p.m.

Follow Prairie Fire athletics on Twitter