Box Score
Monmouth, IL – The Prairie Fire struggled to make shots and lost to Monmouth College 127-90 in a Midwest Conference road game on Saturday.
The Fighting Scots (6-5, 5-1 MWC) snapped a two-game losing streak and remain one game back of MWC leader St. Norbert College while handing Knox its sixth straight loss.
The Prairie Fire (1-10, 1-5 MWC) saw Monmouth make its first run early in the opening half. Senior Abby Owens (Grinnell, IA, Grinnell) connected on a 3-point basket for Knox to tie the game at 7-7 at the 18:05 mark. The Scots scored the next 11 points for an 18-7 advantage with 15:42 to go.
The Fire cut the deficit to 18-11 about a minute later, but Monmouth reclaimed a double-digit lead at 22-12. The Scots wouldn’t allow Knox to get any closer than 10 and went into the locker room up 62-47 at halftime.
The Prairie Fire made just 2-of-18 shots from behind the 3-point arc and closed the half shooting 37 percent while knocking down 19-of-28 free throws. Monmouth shot 47 percent in the first half and made the most of second chance opportunities, outscoring Knox 19-5.
The Fighting Scots scored 20 of the first 23 points of the second half to take a commanding 82-50 lead with 15:45 remaining. The closest the Prairie Fire would get the rest of the way was 89-60 with a little over 13:00 to play.
The long range shot would not go down for Knox, which made 4-of-30 from 3-point distance over the final 20 minutes and wound up 6-of-48 (12.5 percent). The Prairie Fire finished the game shooting 28-of-85 overall (33 percent).
The Scots, which held a 71-47 rebounding advantage, hit 25-of-45 shots (56 percent) in the second half and 48-of-94 (51) percent overall. Monmouth also had success from deep, shooting 7-of-13 from 3-point range in the second half and finishing 11-of-27 (41 percent).
Senior Kelly Ricketts (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) scored 12 points to lead four Knox players in double-figures. First-year Brittney Price (Wyoming, IL, Stark County) and senior Steph Nunez (Mokena, IL, Lincoln-Way East) added 11 apiece and first-year Jodi Marver (Northbrook, IL, Glenbrook North) had 10. Colleen Forrest paced Monmouth with a game-high 16 points.
The Fire will get another chance to end a long drought against the Scots when they meet again in the regular season finale for both teams on February 18 at Memorial Gym. The last Knox win against Monmouth was a 60-58 victory at home on February 16, 2002.
The Prairie Fire returns to Memorial Gym for a MWC game on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against Lake Forest College (4-5, 3-2). The Foresters have lost three straight after beating Lawrence University 73-48 at home on December 3.
Knox and Lake Forest split their two games last season.
Follow Prairie Fire athletics on Twitter
