It’s a 5pm on a Tuesday night, and after an early bird supper at 156 East, we sped off to Memorial Gym to watch the besties face off against Fontbonne University—henceforth known as FU. With energy pumping through the veins of the Besties stepped on to the court ready to ball hard.

The first quarter was nothing to sleep on. From the opening tip off, the besties came out on (prairie) fire. Already up 9-0, Jessica Lee (Sr. Omaha, Ne.) pulls in two huge rebounds before passing out and getting open for a solid shot from beyond the arch. Flustered, the other team made the hand signal and the refs said FU…time-out. You could tell from the onset that the besties came out ready to prove that their defense was nothing to mess with. On each inbounding pass, the look of impending doom came across the FU faces as they dribbled up and down the court, but they were met with quick hands and shut down defense. Towards the end of the first quarter, with four quick passes Madi Bunger (Sr., Kirkland,IL) was found under the basket for an easy uncontested layup and the crowd…went…nuts. At the end of the first, it was besties 30, resties-12.
One quick thing to point out: since this is a Prairie Fire athletics page (unofficially), and because our heart beats all things Knox, we want to alert fans to a misunderstanding. It was brought to our attention that head coach Kira Mowen unintentionally wore red and black buffalo plaid pants on the sidelines during this home game at Memorial Gym. While we obviously know that those are “the team down 34″s colors, when reached for comment Coach Mowen had this to say:

No comment…but it’s buffalo plaid season and Christmas is coming. Knox Forever.

Kira Mowen regarding the buffalo plaid controversy

After some overwhelming offensive production in the first quarter, we enter the second quarter with the same sort of aggression…though it might have been a little too much. Fouls were flying, (though let’s be honest some of them were weak calls), but FU had a lot of difficulty hitting the free shots. Not to continue too much into the fashion realm, because this is a basketball post, but the refs must have forgotten it’s hot girl autumn because they made Kristin Herndon (Jr. Hopkins, Mo.) take out her earrings and nose ring. They clearly don’t know what’s in and what’s out, but back to basketball. Not only a two-sport phenom, Catessa Duran (Sr. Albuquerque, NM)had two impressive kills blocks on the court; blocks so impressive that they were called “NBA-esque blocks” by fellow Super Fan Meg. A pivotal play in the second quarter comes from sophomore Mae Callahan (So., Tucson, Az.) with the sticky-fingers steal and a tough lay-up forcing her to the charity stripe. It’s this kind of aggressive and impressive defense, and strong lay-ups without fear of fouls, that our coaching staff has been preaching and teaching. Like a favorite movie, when you sit in the stands, you find something new each time that you can clearly tell the besties have been working on in practice.

Due to some unfortunate scheduling conflicts, this sports fan was only able to attend to the first half though our anonymous sources have said the second half was even better than the first. Baskets were made, passes were passed, and when the buzzer sounded at the end of the fourth the final score was
Besties-77
Resties-63

As we say, win or loss, we are very proud of the teamwork displayed on the court. You could really tell that our besties were out there having fun and doing their best. We can’t wait for the next game on Saturday at Memorial Gym. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and as always #FireUp.