GALESBURG, Illinois - The Prairie Fire women's basketball team defeated Ripon 67-54 on Saturday afternoon. Knox picked up their first win over the Redhawks since sweeping the season series in 2015.

Ripon jumped out to an 18-5 lead in the first quarter, but the Prairie Fire cut into the lead in the final minutes of the period to trail just 21-14 heading into the second quarter.

The Redhawks took another 10 point lead early in the second period, but Knox began chipping away at the lead and tied the game at 26-26. The teams played some back-and-forth at the end of the first half with Ripon holding a 33-32 edge at halftime.

The Prairie Fire used a 17-4 run to take a double-digit lead of their own early in the second half. The Redhawks pulled within seven late in the the third quarter, but Knox used a 9-0 run at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter to take a commanding lead. The Prairie Fire retained their double-digit lead the remainder of the game.

Catessa Duran led Knox with 17 points to go along with seven rebounds, five assists. and three steals. Sarina Dacio added 16 points on a 3-for-4 showing from long-range. Kristin Herndon narrowly missed a triple-double with 14 points, nine boards, and nine blocked shots before fouling out.

"The effort our ladies displayed tonight against a very good Ripon team was phenomenal," said head coach Kira Mowen. "It goes to show that when everyone buys into a game plan it pays off. The first quarter we did not control the game the way we hoped. Our defense stepped up in quarters 2-4 stopping Ripon from what they wanted to do offensively. We still have some areas to fix and fine tuning to do, as we move forward. We won this week though and need to put that same effort into two non-conference games before we depart to be with our families over the holidays. We will see everyone back in the gym on Monday night."

The Prairie Fire return to action on December 12 as they host Westminster College.