Appleton, WI – The Prairie Fire continued its recent success against Lawrence University in the first road game of the season on Saturday.

Sophomore Jodi Marver (Northbrook, IL, Glenbrook North) scored a career-high 21 points points and Knox (1-4, 1-2 MWC) beat the Vikings 90-79.  The Prairie Fire is 6-1 over the last seven games against Lawrence, including wins in the last two meetings, and snapped an 11-game slide going back to last season.

Knox led virtually the entire game, jumping out to a 9-2 advantage a little over 2:00 into the contest.  The Prairie Fire took its first double-digit lead at 15-4 with 16:37 in the first half, followed by a 12-2 run for a 27-6 lead at the 13:48 mark.

Lawrence (0-4, 0-3 MWC) trimmed the deficit to 41-29 with 2:26 to play in the first half.  Sophomore Krystal Pitts (Round Lake Beach, IL, Round Lake) and Marver each drilled a 3-point basket, sandwiched between a pair of Vikings free throws, to close out the half and give Knox a 47-31 lead.

The Prairie Fire sank eight 3-pointers in the first half and shot 39 percent.  Lawrence hit 36 percent from the field in the first half and was outscored 24-0 from 3-point range.

The Vikings cut Knox’s lead to 49-41 with 14:14 to play in the game.  The Prairie Fire responded with a 21-9 run to go up 70-50 less than four minutes later.

Lawrence put together one more run, a 10-0 spurt that cut the Knox advantage down to seven at 80-73 with 2:18 to go.  Sophomore Becky Duffy (Chicago, IL, Northside Prep) took care of the rest of the scoring for the Prairie Fire, sinking 10 straight free throws to seal the victory.

Duffy was 15-of-18 from the foul line and finished with 19 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and five steals. 

Knox had 21 steals in the game and forced the Vikings into 43 turnovers.  The Prairie Fire made only three 3-point shots in the second half, but made up for it by connecting on 22-of-28 (79 percent) free throws in the final 20 minutes.

Lawrence finished the game shooting 42 percent overall, including 2-of-11 from 3-point range, and sank 21-of-28 (75 percent) attempts from the foul line.

Joining Marver and Duffy in double-figure scoring was sophomore Jessica Howard (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg), who had 11 points for Knox.

Lawrence was led by Amber Lisowe with 18 points.

The Prairie Fire returns home for a MWC game against Cornell College on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.  The Rams (5-0, 1-0 MWC) won their first conference game of the season 63-42 against preseason league favorite and previously unbeaten St. Norbert College on Saturday in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

The game between the Prairie Fire and Cornell will be streamed live on the Web beginning at 5:20 p.m. at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/knox.portal#.

Follow Prairie Fire athletics on Twitter