Ripon, WI – The Prairie Fire stayed with Ripon College and its potent offense for the first 10 minutes of the game, but the Red Hawks rode the hot hand of their best scorer defeated Knox on Saturday at Wyman Gym.

Ripon senior Aris Wurtz scored 23 of his game-high 31 points in the first half.  He made 8-of-11 shots, including three 3-pointers and a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line in leading the Red Hawks to a 46-25 halftime lead.

The Prairie Fire (3-17, 2-13 MWC) and Ripon were tied at 11-11 with 14:28 remaining in the first half when the Red Hawks (14-6, 10-5 MWC) scored 10 straight points, eight of them by Wurtz, for a 21-11 lead at the 11:10 mark.

Knox followed with five straight points on a 3-pointer by seniorBen Wetherbee (Sydney, Australia, Woodstock) and a basket by junior Lukas Shaw (Portland, OR, U.S. Grant) to cut the Ripon lead to 21-16 with 10:15 remaining.  Wurtz continued his torrid shooting, burying a 3-pointer at the 9:47 mark to put his team back up by eight at 24-16.

After Shaw split a pair of free throws on the Fire’s next possession to trim the deficit to seven (24-17), Ripon used a 7-0 run to reclaim a double-figure lead, 31-17, with 8:18 to go in the half – prompting a Knox timeout.

A basket by first-year guard Armand Stricklin (Lee Summit, MO, Lee Summit West) 7:18 before intermission stopped the Red Hawk run.

Wurtz hurt the Fire again on the ensuing possession, sinking a 3-pointer for a 34-19 lead.  The basket fueled a 10-3 run that increased the Ripon lead to 44-22 with 1:47 prior to halftime.

The Prairie Fire made 10-of-33 (30 percent) shots in the opening half and struggled at the free throw line.  Knox, a 65 percent free throw shooting team, made only 1-of-8 from the stripe.

Ripon shot exceptionally well in the first half.  The Hawks connected on 17-of-32 (53 percent) and made 6-of-14 from 3-point range whiling going 6-for-8 from the free throw line.

The Prairie Fire opened the second half on a 13-4 run to cut the Ripon advantage to 50-38 with 15:20 to play.  Knox got even closer about a minute later.  After a pair of made free throws by the Red Hawks’ Taylor Koth gave Ripon a 52-38 advantage, junior Tyler Olson (Marengo, IA, Iowa Valley) sank one of his five 3-point baskets to close the gap to 52-41 at the 14:23 mark.

Ripon maintained a 12 point lead at 62-50 with 7:36 remaining.  The Prairie Fire were faced with a 17 point deficit following a 7-2 run by Ripon that made the score 69-52 with just over 6:00 left in the game.

Knox whittled the Red Hawk advantage to 14 at 71-57 on a jumper by Shaw at the 3:52 mark, but that’s a close as the Fire would get.  Ripon scored seven unanswered points to build the lead to 21 at 78-57 with a little over 90 seconds to play and seal the win, the Red Hawks’ second straight and ninth at home without a loss.

The Prairie Fire outscored the Red Hawks 37-31 in the second half and shot better.  Knox was 13-of-28 (46 percent) overall and 6-for-13 from 3-point range while making a complete turnaround at the foul line with a 5-for-5 effort.  Knox finished the game 23-of-61 shooting (38 percent).

Olson, who was 5-for-6 from 3-point range, led the Prairie Fire with a season-high 15 points.  Three others scored in double-figures for the Fire.  Senior Joe Kozak (Park Ridge, IL, Maine South) had 12, Shaw 11 and a team-high nine rebounds, and Stricklin finished with 10 points.

The Red Hawks cooled off in the second half, shooting 12-of-31 (39 percent), but made 29-of-63 (46 percent) for the game.  Ripon also slowed down from 3-point range, making 1-of-6 in the second half and 6-of-14 overall while connecting on 13-of-15 free throws in the contest.

Besides Wurtz with a game-high 31 points, three other Ripon players cracked double-figures.  Koth scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half.  Nic Schaalma posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds and Alex Erdmann chipped in with 11 points.

Ripon got a big victory on Friday night, 105-96 at home against Grinnell College.  The win snapped the Pioneers’ five-game winning streak and knocked Grinnell (16-3, 12-3 MWC) out of first place.  Lake Forest College (18-2, 14-1 MWC) sits alone atop the conference.  Grinnell, meanwhile, has lost two straight games after dropping a 97-96 heartbreaker at St. Norbert College (13-7, 10-5 MWC) on Saturday.

The Green Knights came back from a 15 point deficit in the second half.  SNC’s Brandon Gries was the hero.  He scored six straight points for the Knights in the final 36 seconds, including a 3-pointer that tied the game at 96-96 with 25 seconds to play, and the game-winning free throw with two seconds on the clock.

 The Red Hawks and St. Norbert are tied for third place in the Midwest Conference standings and they split their two regular season meetings.

Carroll University (11-8, 7-7 MWC), which lost 69-57 to MWC leader Lake Forest on Saturday, is in fifth place with four games to play.  The Pioneers need to win out to have a chance to qualify for the Midwest Conference Tournament.  It won’t be easy as two of the opponents remaining on Carroll’s schedule are Ripon in Waukesha, Wisconsin and St. Norbert in DePere, Wisconsin.

Knox returns home on Wednesday, February 8 to play Illinois College (4-15, 2-12 MWC) at 7:30 p.m.  The Blueboys defeated the Prairie Fire 70-56 on January 28 at home, snapping a nine-game slide.  Since the win against the Fire, IC has dropped two straight games by a combined three points against Beloit College and Lawrence University.

One streak will give way in Wednesday night’s meeting against Illinois College.  Knox has lost nine straight games while IC is 0-8 on the road this season.

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