Waukesha, WI – Carroll University used a big first half to build a lead the Pioneers would never relinquish in an 84-61 Midwest Conference win against the Prairie Fire 84-61 on Friday night at Van Male Fieldhouse.

The Prairie Fire (3-16, 2-12 MWC) trailed 6-0 before junior Lukas Shaw (Portland, OR, U.S. Grant) got scored the team’s first basket at the 17:36 mark.  Carroll (11-7, 7-6 MWC) went on an 8-0 run over the next 2:45 to stake to a 14-2 advantage.

Knox trimmed the Pioneer lead to four on two occasions -- 16-12 at 10:24 and 18-14 with 8:28 to play in the first half – but Carroll answered with another run, a 16-5 spurt over a stretch of 5:12, to go up 34-19 with 3:16 remaining.

The teams basically played even the rest of the way and the Pioneers held a 40-26 halftime lead.

Cold shooting hurt the Prairie Fire.  Knox made 11-of-32 field goals (32 percent) while Carroll knocked down 17-of-28 (61 percent), including 5-of-10 from 3-point distance.

Knox trimmed the deficit to 10 twice early in the second half, the second time at 42-32 on another basket by Shaw with 17:26 to go.  The Pioneers scored the next seven points over the next 2:38 to extend the lead to 49-32.

The Prairie Fire never got within 15 points the rest of the game.

Knox shot 9-of-26 (35 percent) in the second half and 20-of-58 (34.5 percent) overall, including 4-of-19 from 3-point range.  The Prairie Fire went 17-of-21 from the foul line.

Carroll was 37-of-65 (57 percent) shooting in the game and sank 7-of-17 baskets from beyond the 3-point arc.

Senior Ben Wetherbee (Sydney, Australia, Woodstock) led three Prairie Fire players in double-figure scoring with 12 points, all on 3-pointers.  Senior Tanner Carlson (Annawan, IL, Annawan) added 11 points and senior Joe Kozak (Park Ridge, IL, Maine South) had 10.

Kyle Jones scored a game-high 18 points for Carroll, which swept the season series against Knox.  The Pioneers won the first meeting 68-61 on December 3 at Memorial Gym.

Knox tries to snap an eight game losing streak on Saturday afternoon (4:00 pm) at Ripon College, the final game of the Prairie Fire’s current four-game road trip. 

The Red Hawks (13-6, 9-5 MWC) hosted Grinnell College (16-2, 13-2 MWC) on Friday night and handed the Pioneers a 105-96 defeat.  Ripon knocked Grinnell out of a tie for first place in the league standings with Lake Forest College (17-2, 13-1 MWC) and improved to 8-1 on its home floor this season.

Ripon defeated the Prairie Fire 78-51 in the first game between the schools on December 2 at Memorial Gym.

Midwest Conference Men’s Basketball Games – Saturday, February 4, 2012
Knox (3-16, 2-12) at Ripon (13-6, 9-5) – 4:00 pm *view the game online at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ripon.portal
Monmouth (5-13, 3-10) at Beloit (6-12, 5-8) – 4:00 pm
Grinnell (16-2, 13-2) at St. Norbert (12-7, 9-5) – 4:00 pm
Lake Forest (17-2, 13-1) at Carroll (11-7, 7-6) – 4:00 pm
Illinois College (4-14, 2-11) at Lawrence (7-11, 6-8) – 4:00 pm

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