Ripon, WI – A late run by Ripon College in the first half, and hot shooting in the second half, lifted the Red Hawks to a 91-82 Midwest Conference win over the Prairie Fire on Saturday at Wyman Gymnasium.

Knox (1-11, 1-6 MWC) led 33-32 on a pair of free throws by sophomore Mitch Murphy (Bushnell, IL, Bushnell-Prairie City/Avon) with 3:05 remaining in the opening half before Ripon (6-7, 4-4 MWC) followed with 10 straight points, seven by the Midwest Conference’s second-leading scorer Taylor Koth, for a 42-33 lead. 

Sophomore Armand Stricklin (Lee Summit, MO, Lee Summit West) hit a jumper to beat the buzzer to trim the Ripon advantage to 42-35 at halftime.

The Red Hawks jumped out to a 19-8 lead 8:30 into the contest.  Senior Lukas Shaw (Portland, OR, U.S. Grant) scored six consecutive points on three field goals, the last one at the 9:27 mark, to reduce the Prairie Fire’s deficit to 19-14.

A score off of an offensive rebound on the next possession boosted the Red Hawk lead to 21-14.  Junior Eric Miller (Villa Park, IL, Willowbrook) followed with a 3-pointer that pulled Knox within 21-17 with 8:40 to play in the half.

A bucket by Brad Brooks and two free throws by Koth pushed the Ripon lead to eight points at 25-17. 

The Prairie Fire went on a 10-2 run -- nine points courtesy of 3-point baskets by Stricklin, first-year Javaka Thompson (Chicago, IL, Whitney Young), and Murphy -- to pull even with the Red Hawks at 27-27 with 5:08 before halftime. 

Knox tied the game at 30-30 on another trey by Murphy less than 30 seconds later after Koth converted a conventional 3-point play for a brief 30-27 Ripon lead.

Koth, who had 20 points in the first half, scored again for Ripon for a 32-30 advantage.  Murphy sank 3-of-4 free throws on back-to-back possessions to give the Prairie Fire its first lead since scoring the first basket of the game.

Murphy had 12 first half points for Knox on 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range and three free throws.

The Red Hawks shot 50% in the first half and made 9-of-11 free throw attempts.  The Prairie Fire closed the half shooting 37.5% and hit 4-of-6 foul shots.  Knox stayed within striking distance by knocking down 7-of-17 (41%) 3-pointers – outscoring Ripon 21-9 from long distance.

The Prairie Fire cut the Ripon lead to 50-45 on a bucket by Murphy with 16:13 remaining in the contest. The Red Hawks countered with a 7-0 run less than two minutes later for a 57-45 lead, their biggest of the game at that point. 

Senior Tyler Olson (Marengo, IA, Iowa Valley) drilled a 3-point basket that whittled the deficit to 57-50 with 13:28 to play. Ripon scored five straight points in the next minute, the start of a 19-8 run in a seven minute stretch that extended the lead to 76-58 with 6:28 left to play.

Knox got as close as seven points at 89-82 on a 3-pointer by Miller with 16 seconds on the clock.

The Red Hawks missed eight shots in the second only half, a sizzling 20-of-28 for 71%.  Ripon finished at 60% overall (30-of 58), a season-best, and drained 16-of-20 free throws.

The Red Hawks, now 3-1 at home this season, snapped a two-game losing streak with the win and defeated the Prairie Fire for the eighth consecutive time

The Prairie Fire, outscored 49-47 in the second half, shot 53% (20-of-38) in the final 20 minutes and 46% (32-of-70) for the game.  Knox hit 11 baskets from 3-point distance in the game, the second-most this season, and 7-of-12 foul shots.

Murphy led the Prairie Fire with 24 points and four steals.  Shaw and junior David Jones (Denver, CO, Colorado Academy) added 13 points and eight rebounds apiece.  Miller, who entered the game shooting nearly 52% from 3-point range, the second highest percentage in the Midwest Conference, was 3-of-5 from behind the arc and contributed 11 points.

Koth, averaging 23.7 points per game coming into the contest against Knox (25.0 in MWC games), finished with a game-high 37 points – matching his season-high.  He also had 10 rebounds for his fifth straight double-double.  Brooks added 19 points.

Knox is back in action on Wednesday at Illinois College.  The game tips off at 5:30 p.m. and will be streamed live on the Web at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/ic.portal#

The Blueboys (6-6, 3-4 MWC) lost their last game 79-61 at Beloit College on Saturday to end a two-game winning streak.  IC, with victories in five of the last seven games, is 4-2 at home this season.

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