GALESBURG, Illinois—The Prairie Fire men's basketball team dropped their third straight game to open the season by falling to Eureka 103-89 on Sunday afternoon.
 
Knox (0-3) led for a good portion of the first half, but the Red Devils took the lead at the 7:33 mark and added to their total to take an 11-point lead at halftime. The Prairie Fire came out firing on all cylinders in the second half by scoring the first 10 points and bringing the game to within a point at the 17:24 mark. Knox tied it up at 62-all at the 11:58 mark and again 65-65 at the 10:31 mark, but could not regain the lead. Eureka went on a 9-2 run from 8:48 to 6:08 to take the advantage. The Prairie Fire responded with a 6-2 run of their own to bring the score to within four with 5:26 remaining in the game, but the Red Devils took control from there to earn the victory.
 
Deryk Ruple put up a career-high 26 points to lead five Knox players in double digits. Jonathan Damota added 16 points while Marko Protic and Blake Godbold each finished with 14. Protic also hauled in 15 rebounds to earn the double-double. Jacob Kampf hit 4-of-7 from beyond the arc to tally 12 points.
 
Knox will travel to St. Norbert for their Midwest Conference opener on December 1.