Appleton, WI – The Prairie Fire lost its fourth consecutive game to start the season and third straight Midwest Conference contest at Lawrence University on Saturday.

The Vikings rebounded from a three-point defeat three days ago at Ripon College that snapped a two-game winning streak and downed Knox 81-66.

Lawrence (3-2, 2-1 MWC) has won two straight against the Prairie Fire after Knox (0-4, 0-3 MWC) posted a road win in the first contest between the schools last season to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Vikings.

Lawrence made sure it wouldn’t drop a second straight game against the Prairie Fire at Alexander Gym thanks to a strong second half.  Lawrence outscored Knox 39-30 after leading 42-36 at the end of the first half.  The Prairie Fire shot 32 percent and made 7-of-15 free throws over the final 20 minutes while the Vikings knocked down 45 percent from the floor and went 8-for-9 from the foul line.

Knox led by as many as seven points in the first half.  A basket by senior Lukas Shaw (Portland, OR, U.S. Grant) gave the Prairie Fire a 13-6 lead at the 16:31 mark.  Lawrence turned the deficit into a 10 point lead at 37-27 with 2:44 remaining in the half.  The Prairie Fire trimmed the Vikings’ lead to 39-36 with seven seconds to play before the hosts made three consecutive free throws just before the intermission to build the lead back to six.

Lawrence began the second half on a 14-4 run to extend the lead to 56-40 with 13:07 to play.  The Vikings led by as many as 24 points.  Knox scored the last nine points of the contest to account for the final margin of victory for Lawrence.

The Prairie Fire finished the game shooting 40 percent overall and made 9-of-23 (39 percent) shots from 3-point range.  The Vikings connected on 46 percent from the floor, hit seven 3-pointers, and sank 20-of-24 free throws.

Sophomore Mitch Murphy (Bushnell, IL, Bushnell-Prairie City/Avon) led Knox with 18 points and seven rebounds.  Shaw, senior Tyler Olson (Marengo, IA, Iowa Valley), and junior David Jones (Denver, CO, Colorado Academy) added nine points apiece.  Junior Eric Miller (Villa Park, IL, Willowbrook) had a game-high eight assists.

Davis DeWolfe of Lawrence led all scorers with 19 points.

Knox returns home for a MWC game against Cornell College on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.  The Rams (2-2, 1-0 MWC) won their conference opener against preseason league favorite St. Norbert College 58-54 on Saturday in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

The game between the Prairie Fire and Cornell will be streamed live on the Web at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/knox.portal#.

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