Big Fourth Quarter Powers Green Knights Past Prairie Fire

From Staff Writer, January 21, 2017 | Women's Basketball
by Zach Herson, ,

GREEN BAY - In a rare Saturday night Midwest Conference game, St. Norbert College welcomed Knox College to the Kress Events Center. A back-and-forth affair for most of the game led to a dominant fourth quarter by the Green Knights to lead to a 68-46 victory.

The Green Knights (11-4, 8-2 MWC) found themselves in a tight battle with Knox at the end of the third quarter holding a slim 41-39 lead. But in the fourth quarter, a 21-2 run through most of the period broke the game wide open for St. Norbert. The white-hot Green Knights shot 77.8 percent from the field in the fourth quarter, making 7 of 9 field-goal attempts.

St. Norbert started off the fourth quarter with a 21-2 run to give them a 62-41 advantage. Regan Carmichael scored nine of the Green Knights' points during the run, which provided the decisive points for the St. Norbert victory. The St. Norbert defense forced Knox into shooting only 14.3 percent from the floor (2-of-14) in the fourth quarter.

St. Norbert opened the game a quick lead, starting out with a 9-2 lead over Knox and forcing them to take a quick timeout. The Green Knights kept control throughout the first quarter, ending the quarter with a 17-6 advantage.

The Green Knights continued to add to their total in the second quarter, taking a 22-10 lead halfway through the period. Knox responded with an 11-2 run, cut short by Jill Kleiman making a 3-point field goal to make it a 27-21 St. Norbert lead at halftime.

The teams kept their pace to start the third quarter, before Regan Carmichael pushed the St. Norbert advantage to 36-26 with a short layup. Knox responded with an 11-3 run to cut the Green Knights' edge down to two, but a Kleiman layup put a stop to the run.

St. Norbert shot 39 percent (23-for-59) from the floor. Carmichael led all Green Knights with 20 points, making 6 of 9 three pointers. Sarah Ratajcyzk had 12 points and Brianna Byrne tacked on eight points.

Knox shot 31.3 percent (15-for-48) from the floor. Morgan Potter led the team with nine points, while Jarrelyn McCall had eight points for the Prairie Fire.