Galesburg, IL – Lake Forest College defeated the Prairie Fire 70-55 in the Midwest Conference opener for both schools on Sunday at Memorial Gym.

The win was the first of the season for the Foresters (1-2, 1-0 MWC) while the Prairie Fire (0-2, 0-1 MWC) lost its second straight game to begin the season.

Down 8-5, Knox sophomore Mitch Murphy (Bushnell, IL, Bushnell-Prairie City/Avon) sank a long 3-point shot to tie the game at 8-8 with 16:27 in the first half.  Lake Forest scored seven unanswered points to take a 15-8 lead 3:20 later.

The Prairie Fire responded with an 8-4 run that senior Lukas Shaw (Portland, OR, U.S. Grant) capped off with a basket to get his team within 19-16 at the 9:35 mark.

Lake Forest followed with a 10-0 run, including a 3-pointer by Jeff Beck -- who had 17 first half points -- to extend the advantage to 29-16 with 7:49 to play in the opening stanza.

The teams played virtually even the rest of the half as LFC took a 40-26 lead into the locker room at the break.

Lake Forest shot 48.5 percent in the first half and Knox connected on 42 percent. 

The Foresters built the lead to 54-34 with 13:42 to play in the game.  The Prairie Fire responded with a 17-5 run over the next 8:50, including another 3-point bucket by Murphy with 4:52 remaining, to slice the big Lake Forest advantage to eight at 59-51.

Knox was unable to draw any closer and the Foresters closed out the contest on an 11-4 run to earn the victory.  The win was the ninth straight for Lake Forest against the Prairie Fire.  The last Knox victory against LFC was 61-56 in the final game of the 2007-08 season at Memorial Gym.

The Foresters finished the game shooting 25-of-56 (45 percent) overall, including 5-of-21 (24 percent) from 3-point range.  Lake Forest was also 15-for-26 from the free throw line.

The Prairie Fire shot 33 percent in the second half and 19-for-51 (37 percent) overall, including 9-for-22 (41 percent) from behind the 3-point line.  Knox made 8-of-13 free throws and turned the basketball over 21 times compared to 10 miscues for Lake Forest.

Murphy scored a career-high 23 points to lead all Prairie Fire scorers.  Junior Eric Miller (Villa Park, IL, Willowbrook) added nine points and four assists and Shaw had eight points and 10 rebounds.

Beck scored a game-high 24 points for the Foresters.

Knox welcomes high scoring Grinnell College to Memorial Gym on Wednesday for a 7:00 p.m. contest.  The game will be streamed live on the Web at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/knox.portal#

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