BELOIT, Wis. — After falling behind by 11 early in the second half, the Knox College men's basketball team buckled down and turned the tables on host Beloit College, rallying to earn its first Midwest Conference victory of the season, 66-59. Senior Sean Gallery provided 21 points and first-year Daunte Smith had 13 without missing a shot for the Prairie Fire (4-11, 1-5 MWC), while Anthony Carter led the Buccaneers (6-10, 2-6 MWC) with 20.

With six seconds remaining in the first half, first-year Braeden Phelan cut the Knox deficit to two with a driving left-handed layup. But Carter fired off a 3-pointer that splashed through just before the buzzer, deflating the Prairie Fire and putting Beloit up at the break, 32-27. That momentum continued coming out of the locker room as Azeez Ganiyu hit a pair of buckets in the paint and Carter added another in the first two minutes to suddenly make it an 11-point bulge, 38-27.

The two teams traded layups before senior Aidan Derry got Knox moving in the right direction with back-to-back baskets on a hook shot and a turnaround 12-foot jumper. Although Carter responded by canning one of his three 3-pointers of the game, Gallery matched that shot, starting a 13-3 run that featured long balls from Smith and Gallery again, tying the game at 46 near the midpoint of the second half.

Beloit converted three free throws to reclaim the lead, only to have the Prairie Fire rattle off eight straight points, the first five from Gallery to put Knox on top, and capped by another Smith trifecta. When junior Russell Wright and Gallery connected from the floor, the lead was up to seven, 58-51, with three minutes to go.

Thanks to four clutch free throws from sophomore Anthony Davis and two more from junior Carl Dortch, along with a bucket by sophomore Josh Stewart down the stretch, the Prairie Fire were able to keep the Buccaneers from getting any closer than five points to secure the win.

Beloit had a quick start to the first half as well, jumping out to a 13-4 lead and never falling behind over the first 20 minutes.

• Knox really helped itself at the foul line in the second half, hitting 9-of-10, while the Buccaneers struggled mightily at just 10-of-22 (.455).
• Gallery was 7-of-14 from the floor, 3-of-7 behind the arc and 4-of-5 at the line to give him his seventh 20-point game of the season and 17th of his career.
• While Smith was 5-for-5 on his field goals with three triples, his two shots inside the arc just barely had a toe on the line.
• The Prairie Fire defense held Beloit to 32 percent (8-of-25) on field goals and just 10 percent (1-of-10) from distance.
• The Buccaneers did outrebound Knox but the largest margin of any team this season (10), but Stewart provided a team-high nine rebounds for the Fire.
• This was the first Midwest Conference victory for first-year head coach Corey Harvey as well.

The Prairie Fire return to Galesburg for its next game as Cornell College (11-5, 5-2 MWC) comes to town on Wednesday, Jan. 22. Tip-off at Memorial Gym will commence at 7:30 p.m. with a live stream and stats available for fans to keep up with the action through the official website of Knox Athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu.