GALESBURG, Ill. — After a furious comeback in the third quarter, the Knox College women's basketball team could not fend off visiting Grinnell College on Tuesday evening at Memorial Gymnasium as the Pioneers (12-7, 6-4 Midwest Conference left town with an 80-70 victory, snapping a six game win streak for the Prairie Fire (11-7, 6-3 MWC).

Fifth-year Sarina Dacio led Knox with 19 points while sophomore Bria Medina had 18 and junior Kylee Callahan 17 of her own. But Grinnell point guard Nikki Ware hit seven 3-pointers en route to 35 points to lead the Pioneers to the road win.

A 3-pointer by Kelsey Ericksen just before the buzzer signaling halftime sounded gave Grinnell at six-point advantage at the break, 38-32. Two more Pioneer triples to start the second half doubled that lead to a dozen as Knox missed its first four shots of the stanza.

The Grinnell lead was still 11 with 4:36 left in the third quarter when the Prairie Fire started to singe that deficit down. A bucket by first-year Izzy Robinson and a trifecta from Medina cut it down to six. In the final 75 seconds of the period Dacio and Medina each splashed long balls through the net, while Grinnell could only muster a single foul shot, leaving Knox down just one, 54-53.

Dacio gave the Prairie Fire their first lead since the first few minutes with two shots in the paint, and with 4:49 to play, she hit another layup for a promising 65-61 edge. But it was more than four minutes before Knox put another point on the board as Grinnell sandwiched a Ware layup off a turnover between two 3-pointers, quickly turning the tide. Callahan dropped in a layup with 38 seconds left, but although the Pioneers were just 9-of-23 at the foul line to that point, they converted 10 straight the rest of the way to seal the victory.

• The six-game winning streak that was snapped is tied for the seventh-longest in program history, with the longest being a 13-game stretch in 2022-23 when Knox reached the NCAA Tournament.
• Dacio had three treys among her seven field goals, giving her 198 for her career as she looks to become the first women's player to have 200 in a Prairie Fire uniform.
• Grinnell swept the season series for the second straight year after Knox had won nine of the previous 10 meetings.
• Bailey Strovers had 17 points for the Pioneers with four shots from behind the arc, while Sara Booher, who had a triple-double in the first meeting this year, grabbed 14 rebounds but had just three points and three blocks.
• The Prairie Fire are now 7-2 at home this season.

Knox will host its basketball homecoming game this weekend, welcoming back players from years past as it hosts local rival Monmouth College (5-14, 2-8 MWC) on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium. There will be a live stream and stats available for the game through PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox College athletics.