JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — The Knox College men's basketball team began Midwest Conference play at Illinois College on Tuesday evening, but came up short in an 86-71 defeat at Sherman Gymnasium. Ty Lenhardt led the host Blueboys (3-4, 1-0 MWC) with 28 points thanks to six 3-pointers, while senior Russell Wright led three players in double figures on the Prairie Fire (3-2, 0-1 MWC) with 14 points and six rebounds.
Although Knox jumped out to an early 8-5 lead with a pair of buckets by sophomore Noah Campbell, who finished the night with 13 points, Illinois College stormed back with an eight-point run and never relinquished its lead. When the Fire ended the run and cut the deficit to one, Lenhardt and junior Vladimir Marinov exchanged long balls before the Blueboys scored six straight points for a 22-15 edge.
Another Lenhardt triple late in the first half pushed the IC advantage to double digits at 31-21, and the difference remained 10 at the break, 38-28.
The Prairie Fire were able to cut the deficit to single digits a few times early in the second half, but Illinois College kept Knox at arm's length, increasing its lead to as many as 19.
- While the Fire shot well at just under 50 percent for the game (25-of-51), the Blueboys clipped the nets at 56.1 percent (32-of-57) and hit seven 3-pointers to just two for Knox.
- Joining Wright and Campbell in double figures was junior Josh Stewart with 13, more than half of which came at the foul line (7-of-8).
- Six Prairie Fire players made their season debuts tonight, including five first-years, two of whom scored their first points — Damarcus Harbor and Cameron Betker.
- Illinois College has won the last 12 meetings in the series, the longest win streak by either team, and is now 60-39 overall.
Knox will return to action next Tuesday, Dec. 2, when it hosts undefeated Lawrence University (5-0, 0-0 MWC) at Memorial Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m. The game will be live streamed with stats available through PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox College Athletics.
