MOUNT VERNON, Iowa — Holding a 55-49 lead with 6:30 to play, the Knox College women's basketball team could not fend off host Cornell College on Saturday afternoon as the Rams went on a 17-0 run en route to a 76-67 win over the Prairie Fire at the Small Athletic and Wellness Center on Saturday afternoon. Erin Knowles provided 27 points and 18 rebounds for Cornell College (14-10, 10-6 Midwest Conference) while junior Kylee Callahan countered with 23 points and seven boards for Knox (15-10, 10-6 MWC).

With the outcome, both the Prairie Fire and Rams finished the regular season tied for fourth in the league standings. And with Ripon College's 68-54 victory over Lawrence University and Grinnell College's 67-52 triumph at Monmouth College, the fourth and final berth to the Midwest Conference Tournament next week will be determined by a coin flip. That coin flip will be streamed live at 5:15 p.m. UPDATE: Knox lost the coin flip and its season came to an end.

The loss overshadowed junior Kylee Callahan's season-high 23 points, the first of which put her over 1,000 points in her career, just the fifth player in program history to reach the milestone.

The Rams briefly held a five-point lead in the first quarter only to have Knox end the period with five straight points to knot the score at 15 after 10 minutes of play. The game remained a one-possession game throughout the second quarter, and the final points were provided by first-year Izzy Robinson with her second 3-pointer of the game, giving the Prairie Fire a 26-23 lead at the break. 

Both teams were shooting under 30 percent from the floor in the opening half, but the lid came off the rims after the intermission. Knox opened up an 11-point lead at 39-28 following consecutive buckets before Cornell College gave a preview of what was to come, scoring 12 straight points to reclaim the lead. Callahan broke a 42-all tie with one of her season-high four 3-pointers, and the Prairie Fire entered the final quarter with a 49-44 advantage.

Cornell College quickly tied the score with five points, and Knox responded with six points to go up, 55-49, with 6:37 to play. The rest of the game belonged to the Rams, however, as they scored the next 17 points, hitting 5-of-7 field goals with three triples and 14-of-16 at the foul line the rest of the way. Meanwhile, the Prairie Fire managed just 2-for-12 from the floor and 7-of-10 at the charity stripe to close out the game.

• Knox was fortunate to have the lead at the half considering its two leading scorers on the season entering the game — Medina and fifth-year Sarina Dacio — were both held scoreless during the first 20 minutes of action.
• Medina did score 14 points in the second half to give her 455 on the season, tying her own single-season record.
• The Prairie Fire have participated in the conference tournament the last six seasons, and now a coin flip will determine if that streak will extend to seven.
• Robinson finished the game with 11 points, her second double-digit performance of the year.

Whichever team wins the coin flip will be the four-seed at the tournament, matched up against regular-season champion Ripon (21-4, 15-1 MWC) on its home floor on Friday at 5 p.m. Live video and stats will be available from the tournament.