GALESBURG, Illinois - The Knox Prairie Fire women's basketball team were defeated by the Monmouth College Fighting Scots this Friday in the Midwest Conference women's basketball tournament, losing 57-48. The loss ends their season, and their final record finishes at 12-13.

Both teams got off to a very sluggish start offensively, and that theme continued throughout the game. The Prairie Fire were unable to create much space for their shooters, and driving inside was not an effective option very frequently, either. Jessica Lee shouldered much of the offensive burden and scored over half of the team's points, putting up her 26 points in part with her 8-for-9 effort from the charity stripe. However, the team couldn't hold the Scots on defense, and this combined with their poor shooting put them in a 15 point deficit at halftime.

The second half saw Knox close Monmouth down defensively while finding their own rhythm on offense. Despite being out-rebounded and unable to get their three-point shooting going, the Prairie Fire began to close the gap in the third quarter. This was due in part to Olivia Palepoi's excellent play off the bench, as she scored eight points on 3-of-4 shooting to provide a steadying presence when the starters rested. Unfortunately, the Fighting Scots shot just enough three-point shots to keep Knox from closing the distance.

"We fought until the very end," said head coach Kira Mowen. "We were thrown some curveballs this week, but still played our hearts out. Thank you to our seniors, Jess Lee and Liv Palepoi, as they both played well and kept us in the game."

Although the women's season comes to an end, the entire Knox community congratulates the team on a successful season and looks forward to their efforts next year. The Prairie Fire went on a eight game winning streak to tie a school record earlier this year and made their third MWC Tournament in the last four seasons. The team will return leading scorer Catessa Duran and league block leader Kristin Herndon next year, along with Haylee Carpenter and Sarina Dacio who were among the league leaders in three point shooting.