GALESBURG, Illinois—In front of a frenzied crowd the Knox College Prairie Fire men's basketball team played a tightly contested game against the Monmouth Fighting Scots.
Monmouth opened with a quick 5-0 start but Knox battled back. Sophomore Ikenna Ozor opened up the scoring for the Prairie Fire. First-year point guard Malcolm Bray dazzled the crowd with a nice assist to junior Justin Windt. Windt and sophomore Blake Godbold carried the Prairie Fire in the opening minutes of the first half. The game was tied at 16 when first-year Jordan Rayner went on a string of four straight free throws to put Knox up 22-18.
Monmouth would regain the lead at the end of the first half. They went into the locker room with a two-point advantage. Rebounding told the story as Monmouth had 10 offensive rebounds equaling the Prairie Fire's total rebounds. Those offensive rebounds helped Monmouth to 17 second chance points in the half.
Godbold opened up the scoring in the 2nd half for Knox by knocking down a trey. Monmouth went on another run but first-year point guard Jaelon Brooks came off the bench to spark the Prairie Fire. Brooks attacked the basket relentlessly and was rewarded at the charity stripe multiple times.
From the five-minute mark on, Monmouth controlled the game. Led by DJ Swift, the Monmouth Fighting Scots won this matchup by a score of 71-63.
Windt led the Prairie Fire with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Rayner added 13 points off the bench and Blake Godbold scored 11 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Bray rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points while adding an impressive eight assists.
"Our guys have started to play better and more as a team," said head coach Kevin Walden. "We didn't quite finish off possessions on both ends of the court tonight but we had great effort overall. We gave up too many offensive rebounds which was the difference in the game. If we continue to play hard and together, good things will happen."
Next up for Knox is a matchup with St. Norbert at home on January 12.
