FRANKLIN, Ind. — While Sean Gallery became the 14th player in Knox College men's basketball history to score 1,000 points in a career by pouring in 25, the host Franklin College Grizzlies sent the Prairie Fire back to Galesburg with a 95-81 loss. Jessie Morgan III had 20 points for Franklin (3-1), which had five players scoring in double figures, while Josh Stewart came off the bench for Knox (2-3) to pitch in a career-high 20 off his own.

Gallery, the reigning Midwest Conference Performer of the Week, went right to work, scoring the first seven Prairie Fire points, and a Stewart bucket gave them an early 9-2 advantage. Knox led for nearly the entirety of the first half, building a lead as big as 10 points after back-to-back 3-pointers by Cole Andrews. But the Grizzlies clawed their way back to take a brief 41-40 lead with under a minute left only to have Daunte Smith respond with a 3-pointer to keep the Fire on top at the intermission, 43-41.

In the second stanza, Franklin scored the first 12 points for a sudden 10-point lead of its own. Back came Knox with the next nine points, bookended by layups by junior Carl Dortch. A minute later, Gallery put his team back on top by driving to the rim for two, making it a 56-55 game with 12:50 to play.

The two teams traded buckets, and that would be the last time the Prairie Fire were on top. The Grizzlies roared the rest of the way, particularly during a 9-0 run that turned a two-point game into an 11-point lead with seven minutes left. Knox could not close the gap to fewer than eight the rest of the way as Franklin enjoyed its largest lead at 95-77 with just over a minute to go. 

• The Prairie Fire were on fire from the floor, hitting 57.7 percent of their field goals (30-of-52) and 50 percent from downtown (6-of-12), but the problem was turnovers with twice as many miscues (21-10) as the Grizzlies which led to more than twice as many Franklin points off those miscues (31-15).
• Another problem for Knox was the offensive boards where the Grizzlies turned 13 second-chance opportunities in 23 points.
• Gallery finished the night hitting 8-of-12 field goals and both his 3-point attempts, while Andrews was 8-of-11 while tying Andrews for the team rebounding lead with six and dishing out a Knox-best four assists.
• The two teams had not met on the hardwood in nearly 19 years, at the same location and with a similar result as Franklin defeated Knox on Dec. 9, 2005 by a final of 85-64.
• The last Prairie Fire player to top 1,000 points was Jordan Rayner in the third game of his final season in 2022-23. He finished his career with 1,357 points, fifth all-time at Knox.

The Prairie Fire will be back on the hardwood in one week on Tuesday, Dec. 3 for their Midwest Conference opener when they play at the running, gunning Grinnell College Pioneers (4-2). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with live video and stats available through PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox College athletics.