APPLETON, Wisconsin—The Knox Prairie Fire women's basketball team defeated the Lawrence Vikings this Wednesday in Appleton, winning 67-55. With the victory, the Prairie Fire improve their winning streak to four games while winning their first conference game of the season.
Early on, Knox used their trademark suffocating defense to great effect. Holding the Vikings to only 24.1% shooting and 18 points total in the first two quarters allowed for the Prairie Fire to build a solid lead. Jessica Lee was a perfect 3-3 off the bench, while Kyra Huffman drained all four of her free throws to put up six points, four rebounds, and three steals. Forcing turnovers on the defensive end led to plenty of fastbreak opportunities for Knox, who were efficient and calculated when taking their shots. As a result, the second quarter ended with them up by 14 points.
The second half saw the Prairie Fire offense struggle to keep up their performance from the first half. Knox turned the ball over 12 times in the final two quarters, and most of their offense was hurried by the persistent Lawrence defense. What the Prairie Fire did manage to successfully achieve on offense was getting to the freethrow line often, going 15-for-19 from the stripe. This allowed them to stay relatively even with the hot Lawrence offense, who shot a much improved 40% from the field and went 6-12 from three. Using the big lead they had built up in the first half, Knox managed to get a relatively comfortable win.
Kyra Huffman led the Prairie Fire with 14 points and eight rebounds. Jarrelyn McCall added 13 points, while NaKeva Mack tacked on 11. Catessa Duran picked up seven points and six steals.
"It was good to get a win on the road to open conference play," said head coach Emily Cline. "We were balanced scoring wise and did a lot of good things defensively. Kyra was tough on both ends of the court and did a good job of limiting Lawrence's leading scorer."
The Prairie Fire look to keep their winning streak alive when they host Grinnell College this Saturday at 3:00 p.m.
