JACKSONVILLE, Illinois - The Prairie Fire men's basketball team dropped a close 72-68 conference game at Illinois College on Tuesday night.
The Blue boys jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the first half, but Knox soon rallied to take a 6-5 lead. After some back and forth, IC slowly built up a seven point lead and led 33-28 heading into halftime.
The Blueboys took a double-digit lead early in the second half, but a jumper by Malcolm Bray brought the Prairie Fire within one point. Illinois College maintained their lead throughout the rest of the half, but Knox hung around the whole time.
Jordan Rayner paced the Prairie Fire with 17 points, helped by a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line. Duane Goodman, Jr. also leveraged a perfect 6-for-6 line from the charity stripe to add 16 points. Matt Garife tallied 10 points as well.
"We stayed around the whole game," said head coach Ben Davis. "We just couldn't quite get a sustained run to take the advantage. We play them again on Thursday so we will make some adjustments and see what we can do."
Knox returns to action on February 17 as they host Illinois College.