Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire completed a season sweep of Lawrence University with a 90-54 Midwest Conference victory on Saturday at Memorial Gym.

Knox (6-9, 4-6 MWC) and Lawrence (1-14, 0-10 MWC) played through two ties and five lead changes before the Prairie Fire took the lead for good at 22-20 on a pair of free throws by junior Chantal Heckman (Chicago, IL, Latin) with 7:24 before the break.

After a pair of Knox baskets, the Vikings cut the deficit to 26-23 at the 6:03 mark.  The Prairie Fire went on a 15-4 run to lead 41-27 at halftime.  The last four Knox points came on a 3-pointer by sophomore Jodi Marver (Northbrook, IL, Glenbrook North), who was fouled on the shot and made the free throw with :28 seconds left in the first half.

Marver finished with a game-high 24 points, the fifth time she’s topped the 20 point mark this season.

The Prairie Fire outscored Lawrence 14-1 from the free throw line in the opening half.

Knox built the lead to 20 points at 49-29 on a basket by sophomore Becky Duffy (Chicago, IL, Northside Prep) with 17:38 in the game.  A three-point play by first-year Alycia Webster (Allen Park, MI, Melvindale) gave the Prairie Fire a 59-38 lead less than four minutes later.  An offensive put-back by junior Grace Theisen (Minneapolis, MN, Southwest) made it an 83-43 advantage with 7:16 to play.

The Prairie Fire put up 49 second half points to 27 for the Vikings, who finished the game 4-of-16 from the free throw line.

Knox won both games this season against Lawrence.  The Fire prevailed 90-79 in first meeting on December 1 in Appleton, Wisconsin.  Knox owns a 7-1 record in the last eight games against the Vikings, whose losing streak reached nine straight.

Heckman scored a career-high 15 points for the Prairie Fire.  Theisen also reached double-figures with 10 points and she added seven rebounds.

Knox connected on 10 baskets from 3-point range, made 20-of-33 free throws, and forced 38 turnovers by Lawrence.

Next up for the Prairie Fire is a road game against Cornell College on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.  The Rams suffered their first loss of the season 47-44 on Saturday at St. Norbert College after winning 15 straight games.  Cornell owns a one game lead over the Green Knights for first place in the Midwest Conference standings.

The game will be streamed live at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/cornell.portal#

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