RIPON, Wis. — In a rematch of the last two Midwest Conference Tournament championship games, the Ripon College women's basketball team prevailed over Knox College on Saturday afternoon as the host Red Hawks (6-2, 2-0 MWC) remained undefeated in league play with an 80-67 victory over the Prairie Fire (4-5, 1-2 MWC). Ripon hit more than half its shots and held a decisive edge on the glass to keep Knox at arm's length all afternoon.

The Red Hawks took command of the game early on, though fifth-year Sarina Dacio did score the first Prairie Fire points with a 3-pointer for a 3-2 lead. As it turned out, that would be the only lead for Knox the entire game.

Four minutes into the contest, Ripon had a 10-point advantage, 16-6, and was unable to close the gap by the end of the first quarter, trailing 27-16. The Prairie Fire didn't lose ground in the second quarter, however, and junior Kylee Callahan scored the final five points of the half to make it a nine-point game at the intermission, 39-30.

But much like Knox did to Lawrence on Wednesday in a 16-point win, Ripon did to the Prairie Fire, scoring at will in the third quarter. The Red Hawks hit 10-of-14 field goals and 4-of-5 from distance to outscore Knox, 32-16, and build a 25-point lead going into the final stanza.

But the Prairie Fire continued to burn in the fourth quarter, frantically trying to get back in the game. An 11-0 run started by another Dacio trifecta and two more from fifth-year Haylee Carpenter whittled the deficit down to 11, 76-65, with four minutes to play. But sophomore Bria Medina's layup to cap the run was the final field goal of the game for Knox as Ripon fought off the rally.

• Dacio, fresh off surpassing 1,000 points for her career, led four Prairie Fire players in double figures with 15 points thanks to a trio of triples.
• Callahan and Medina each had 13 points while Carpenter added a dozen with three 3-pointers of her own.
• Ripon shot 52.6 percent (30-of-57) from the floor and hauled in 43 rebounds to just 28 for Knox.
• While the Prairie Fire hit only 21-of-59 (.356) field goals, they converted 19-of-21 (season-high 90.5 percent) at the line with Medina providing nearly half those foul shots at 9-of-10.

Knox returns to Galesburg to play host to Aurora College (7-2) on Wednesday, Dec. 18. Tip-off at Memorial Gymnasium will take place at 12:30 p.m. with a live stream and stats for the game available at PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox College athletics.