GALESBURG, Illinois—The Knox College Prairie Fire women's basketball team cruised to a 65-41 victory today against the Grinnell Pioneers at home. Knox's excellent defensive effort was the focal point of their game today, frustrating the Pioneer offense and allowing Knox to maintain double-digit leads throughout the game. The win pushed the Prairie Fire's conference record to 6-4 and their overall record to 9-8.
Grinnell missed their first five shots of the first half, setting what would be the theme for the afternoon: a dominant Knox defense suffocating the Pioneers. The Prairie Fire held the Pioneers to only 19% from the floor, and didn't allow a Grinnell three-pointer in 10 attempts. They also gathered 15 defensive rebounds, with six coming from Kyra Huffman. Knox's dominance in the paint also translated to the offensive end, where Huffman also went 3-for-3 in the first half. Jarrelyn McCall also added nine points and six rebounds of her own, and as a result the Prairie Fire cruised into the break up 20 points, one of their highest margins of the season.
With such a large lead, Knox decided to rotate more of their bench players in and play with a slower tempo in the second half. Grinnell was still unable to figure out Knox's approach at both ends of the court, however. On the defensive side, Knox again was able to clamp down on the Pioneers, using their guard play to hold Grinnell to just 3-for-13 from three and 34.5% from the floor overall. On the offensive end, guard Karlie Thorn had an excellent display of shooting, going 3-for-3 from three and scoring 11 points overall. Jessica Lee also added seven points off the bench, including two scores from beyond the arc, as Knox rolled to a victory.
McCall proved to be a boon for the Prairie Fire, scoring 16 points and pulling down 11 rebounds to notch the double-double. Karlie Thorn added 17 points as well, as their guard play proved to be influential on the offensive and defensive side.
"We had a great defensive effort today," said head coach Emily Cline. "We also shot the ball very well and were very efficient offensively."
Knox's next game is against the Beloit College Buccaneers at home on Friday, January 25th at 5:30 p.m.
