GALESBURG, Illinois—The Knox College Prairie Fire men's basketball team was defeated by the Lawrence Vikings by a final score of 88-72. The Vikings offense was tough to guard throughout the night, and as a result they were able to put up large runs that helped decide the game in their favor.
 
Knox began the game with a hot start. Riding a combined 24 first-half points from Blake Godbold and Malcolm Bray, the Prairie Fire were up by as many as 12 points on the Vikings in the early part of the contest. Unfortunately, Lawrence changed their offensive approach during a timeout, and began to space the floor and shoot more threes. Despite additional quality shooting from Jordan Rayner, Lawrence was able to close the gap and the half ended with Knox only up by one.
 
It was evident in the second half that Lawrence adjusted their game. Mason Materna led Lawrence with 12 points in the second half as the Vikings overall shot 58.3% from the field. Lawrence shot 19-for-22 from the free throw line throughout the whole game.
 
"We are making strides in the right direction. We played a pretty solid first half and led," said head coach Kevin Walden. "We are having trouble finishing off possessions and staying intense for a full forty minutes. One run does us in right now and we have to fix that. We've got to put it together for the whole game."  
 
The Prairie Fire will look to pick up their first conference win against Grinnell College on December 8.