GALESBURG, Illinois - The Prairie Fire men's basketball team earned an 81-61 victory over Dominican in their season opener on Wednesday night. 

Knox jumped out to a 19-5 lead early in the first half, but the Stars worked it back to just a 22-19 deficit. The Prairie Fire began pulling away again as the game approached the intermission. Knox led 37-30 at halftime.

After Dominican scored first in the second half and kept the game fairly close until the Prairie Fire began pulling away midway through the half. After Knox took a 57-47 lead, the Stars were only able to creep back to within single digits (9) twice the rest of the way.

The Prairie Fire never trailed in the game and excelled on the defensive boards with 31.

Andrew Milot and Sean Gallery led Knox with 20 points apiece. Gallery added seven rebounds and Milot dished out four assists and nabbed a pair of steals. Grant Gessert hit two treys late in the game to finish with 14 points. Chikere Nwosu also chipped in eight points and hauled in six boards.

"That was a fun way to start the season," said head coach Ben Davis. "Dominican is a tough, scrappy team that kept coming at us for 40 minutes. We gave up a run in each half that let them back in the game, but I was proud of our guys for executing well after those stretches. We made plenty of mistakes tonight, especially on the defensive end. We will need to clean those up before a tough test this weekend at Augustana."

Knox will travel to Augustana on November 11 for their first road contest of the season.