GALESBURG, Ill. — With an explosive third quarter that saw four different Prairie Fire players contribute from beyond the arc, the Knox College women's basketball team earned their first conference win as the Prairie Fire (4-4, 1-1 Midwest Conference) knocked off the league-leading Lawrence Vikings (5-3, 2-1), 74-58, at Memorial Gymnasium Wednesday night. Knox's dominating performance was capped off with fifth-year Sarina Dacio reaching the 1,000-point mark in her career, the fourth player in Knox history to achieve the feat. 

"I feel pretty stoked about reaching 1,000 points," commented Dacio on her historic night. "I've been trying to get it for a while now, but I am really happy it was this game, actually. I am really proud of the girls for playing hard tonight.

What looked to be a tough shooting night for the Prairie Fire, trailing the Vikings at the half by six, 31-25, ended up being an impressive shooting display as they caught fire from the perimeter in the third quarter. A Dacio 3-pointer set the tone, but it wasn't until sophomore Leah Schoonover drained back-to-back triples, turning a three-point deficit into a three-point lead, that Knox really took off.

Lawrence tried to keep up as Lydia Lueck tied the game with a long ball of her own. But fifth-year Haylee Carpenter was having none of that as she ripped the net from distance. Dacio answered a Viking bucket with a short jumper in the paint, pushing her past the 1,000-point milestone. Carpenter quickly followed Dacio's historic basket with another 3-pointer, and junior Audrey Drapeau joined the fun with a trifecta shortly after. And when Carpenter added her third triple of the quarter, Knox held a 12-point lead en route to a 54-43 advantage at the end of the third quarter. 

The Prairie Fire got nearly all their scoring in the first half close to the basket. Sophomore Bria Medina showed why she is one of the most feared on-the-ball guards in the league, using her speed to attack the Vikings defense head on while scoring eight first-quarter points. Her aggressive start left Knox with an 18-14 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

But the second quarter was as frigid for the Prairie Fire as the temperature outside while Lawrence heated up with an 11-0 run to take a sudden 25-18 lead. Knox did not have a field goal in the stanza until Carpenter scored on the break with 2:18 left in the half and had just one more after that, shooting 18.2 percent over the 10 minutes.

Following the torrid third quarter, Knox went back to work inside, hitting 9-of-20 field goals, building the lead to as large as 25 points before Lawrence tallied the last nine points of the game to no avail.

• Medina led all players with 16 points, junior Kylee Callahan had 15 points and eight rebounds, Carpenter added 14 points (4-of-5 from three) off the bench, and Dacio's historic night ended with 10 points of her own. 
• The Prairie Fire hit 62.5 percent from the field in that electric third quarter, and they were even better from the perimeter at 63.6 percent (7-of-11).
• The seven treys in that third quarter were as many as Knox had knocked down in all but one game this season.
• This was the Prairie Fire's sixth-straight win against the Vikings.

Knox will look to add another conference win as they travel to Ripon, Wisconsin, to face off against the Red Hawks of Ripon College on Saturday, Dec 14. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Doc Weiske '50 Memorial Gymnasium with a live stream and stats for the game available at PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox College athletics.