RIPON, Wisconsin—The Prairie Fire men's basketball team came up just short in an 89-83 loss at Ripon in their final game of the season on Saturday afternoon.

Knox held a slight 7-6 edge in the early going, but the Red Hawks soon jumped out to a double digit lead. The Prairie Fire clawed back to within three with 3:38 left in the first half and briefly took a one point lead with under a minute to play. Ripon retook a one point lead and led 39-38 at the break.

Knox kept the deficit to single digits through much of the early portion of the second half, but Ripon pulled away by 11 with 12:19 left to play. The Prairie Fire fought back to within five over the next few minutes. Knox held just a one point deficit with 4:14 to play, but the Red Hawks maintained their lead and held on for a six point victory.

Zach Lowe led Knox with 30 points on 8-of-11 shooting. He also hit 10-of-11 from the charity stripe. Ethan Meeker added 22 points on a 5-of-11 showing from long range.  Matthew Leary and Deryk Ruple each pitched in 10 points.

"We played a good game against a very good team," said head coach Ben Davis. "I am glad we were able to play so well in our last game of the season, we were very close to pulling off an extremely tough road win."

Knox concludes their season with nine victories, the most since the 2005-06 season.