APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University women's basketball team went on a big scoring run at the end of the first half and the start of the second half Wednesday on its way to a 66-62 Midwest Conference victory over Knox College at Alexander Gymnasium.
    Mallory Meyer was one of three Vikings in double figures as she scored a game-high 16 points and added six rebounds. Meyer went 4-for-11 from the floor and was 8-for-8 from the foul line.
    Lawrence's Libby Crandall came off the bench to score 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range. Ashley Batac also went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc as she finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists for the Vikings. The Vikings (4-4, 2-1 MWC) went 7-for-15 from 3-point range in the game and dominated at the foul line by going 19-for-23. Knox was just 5-for-7 from the stripe.
    Lawrence star Kenya Earl was held to just nine points, but she grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds to go with three blocks and three steals. 
    Knox bolted to a 31-20 lead with 4:10 left in the second quarter when the Vikings charged. Crandall drained a 3-pointer from the corner, and the Vikings got three consecutive defensive stops before Crandall's layup cut the lead to 31-25 with 1:49 left in the opening half. Delaney Brooks then buried a 3-pointer and scored on a driving layup to cut the lead to 31-30 at the half.
    Lawrence finished the first half with 10 consecutive points and grabbed the lead for good at 32-31 on a pair of Meyer free throws to start the third quarter. The Vikings then got back-to-back layups from Earl and Maggie Culver to push the lead to 36-31 and complete a 16-0 run over a stretch of 6:12.
    Lawrence's lead grew to double digits at 47-36 on Meyer's fastbreak layup with 3:26 left in the third quarter, and the Vikings led 52-42 heading to the fourth quarter. 
    Earl got a layup and Meyer added a pair of free throws to start the fourth quarter and push Lawrence's lead to 56-42. The Prairie Fire trimmed the margin to 59-52 before a layup and jumper from Meyer moved the advantage back to 63-52 with 4:56 remaining.    
    Knox kept coming back and trimmed the margin to 63-58 with 1:15 left, but the Vikings came up with three big defensive stops before Knox was forced to foul. Batac hit three free throws in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.
    Catessa Duran led Knox (2-6, 0-2) with 16 points and 13 rebounds.