GALESBURG, Illinois—The Prairie Fire men's basketball team fell to Ripon 81-65 on Friday night.
 
Knox held an early 7-4 lead in the first half, but the Redhawks soon took a 20-11 lead. The Prairie Fire scored six straight points to bring the deficit to three. Ripon pulled away to take a 40-36 into halftime.
 
The Redhawks expanded their lead to 19 points early in the second half, but Knox put up a fight to bring the score to within eight points with 7:59 to play. Ripon jumped back out to a double-digit lead soon after and held on for the victory.
 
Ethan Meeker shot 11-of-19 from the floor to earn game-high honors with 29 points. He was 4-for-9 from long-range. Jordan Rayner added 12 points and Zach Lowe pulled down nine boards.
 
"We had a nice little run there in the second half," said head coach Ben Davis. "Unfortunately we did not execute quite well enough at the end to keep up with Ripon. They are a very good team and we played with them for most of the game."
 
Knox will return to action tomorrow as they host St. Norbert.