Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire made history with a 79-68 Midwest Conference victory against St. Norbert College on Saturday.

The win was the first ever in women’s basketball for Knox (7-10, 5-7 MWC) against the Green Knights.  St. Norbert owned a 29-0 record dating back to the 1983-84 season against the Prairie Fire going into the contest.

The Knights (12-6, 9-4 MWC), who’ve now lost two straight games after falling at Lake Forest College 52-34 last Wednesday, got off to a good start.  St. Norbert extended an 8-7 lead at the 13:51 mark to 18-9 about five minutes later.

The Prairie Fire trimmed the SNC lead to 24-22 on a pair of free throws by sophomore Jessica Howard (Galesburg, IL, Galesburg) with 4:26 in the opening half before the Green Knights built their advantage back to five at 27-22 with 3:03 to go.  Knox responded by going on a 14-1 run, including two more free throws by Howard that tied the game at 27-all, to go up 36-28 before St. Norbert nailed a jumper just before the halftime buzzer sounded and trailed 36-30 at the break.

Howard had a big first half for the Prairie Fire.  She scored 13 of her career-high 22 points before the intermission.  The Knights’ Lauren Carman nearly matched Howard with 12 points before halftime.  Carman went scoreless in the second half.

St. Norbert shot 52% from the floor in the opening stanza but missed 9-of-13 free throws.  Knox connected on 32% of its shots and sank 12-of-18 attempts from the foul line.

The Green Knights scored five straight points in the first minute of the second half to whittle the Prairie Fire lead down to 36-35.  Knox followed with a 7-0 surge, capped off by a 3-pointer from sophomore Krystal Pitts (Round Lake Beach, IL, Round Lake), for a 43-35 advantage with 16:49 to play.

St. Norbert pulled within three points on three different occasions, the last time at 49-46 with just under 11:00 remaining.  A 13-4 run, including back-to-back triples by Howard on the tail end of the spurt, gave the Prairie Fire the biggest lead of the game – 62-50 with 8:08 on the clock.

The Green Knights closed the gap to 64-59 at the 5:23 mark, but Knox scored seven of the next nine points to reclaim a double-figure lead at 71-61 with 4:11 to go.  St. Norbert got within six twice at 73-67 with 2:14 in the contest, but scored one more point the rest of the way.

The big difference in the game was free throw shooting.  The Prairie Fire sank 21-of-30 attempts from the stripe while the Green Knights hit 10-of-27. 

Sophomore Jodi Marver (Northbrook, IL, Glenbrook North) joined Howard in double-figure scoring for Knox with 16 points.

Tasha Giese’s double-double led St. Norbert.  She finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The Prairie Fire goes for a second straight win, and a season split, on Tuesday at Grinnell College.  The Pioneers defeated Knox 78-75 on November 28.  The game is scheduled to tip off at 7:00 p.m.

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