The Prairie Fire Men men overcame a double-digit second half deficit but couldn’t shake Monmouth College in a thrilling 106-97 double overtime  loss on Wednesday. The Prairie Fire who dropped to (1-19) overall and (1-14) in conference play trailed 35-24 at halftime.  Nick Marema was a big factor for the Fighting Scots who improved to (6-15) and (5-11) in the Midwest Conference with 17 first half points. Monmouth extended the lead to 47-34 on the first possession of the second half.  Knox followed with a 16-3 run to tie the game at 50-50 with a little over 13:00 left in regulation.  The Prairie Fire led by as many as three at 64-61 at the 7:53 mark. A 10-2 run gave the Scots the lead back at 71-66 with 3:21 to play. Knox, trailing 74-70 with 2:08 to go, scored four unanswered points to force the first overtime. Monmouth led by as many as five points twice in the extra session, but the Prairie Fire came back and tied the game at 91-91 on a 3-point basket by
Tyler Olson with :04 left.  The Scots couldn’t score on their final possession and the teams went into a second overtime. Monmouth outscored Knox 15-6 in the final five minutes of the game to secure the victory.  The Scots made 7-of-13 shots and 18-of-24 free throws in the two overtimes while the Prairie Fire went 7-of-20 from the floor and connected on 8-of-10 foul shots. Monmouth shot 51% overall compared to 42% for Knox. Marema finished with a game-high 26 points for the Fighting Scots.  Mike DeDecker made all 11 of his free throw attempts and scored 19 of his 23 points after halftime.  Wes Dukeman added a double-double with 25 points and 14 rebounds. David Jones led Knox with 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Eric Miller and Olson contributed 18 points each, Armand Stricklin and Mitch Murphy had 12 apiece, and Lukas Shaw scored 11.