The Morning After: Bulls Win Streak Hits Four

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jan 28, 2010 4:00PM

Bulls Thump OKC
Who would have thought the Bulls would come away from a four game stretch against Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City at 4-0? Not us, but we're happy to be wrong. The Bulls thumped the Thunder 96-86 to win their fourth straight game - all on the road - and move back to .500 for the first time since mid-November. Derrick Rose led the way with 26 points and 7 assists, Luol Deng added 17, and Brad Miller scored 14 off the bench. Even Rose admitted mild surprise at the current winning streak: "Yeah I don't think anyone would have thought we'd have a four-game winning streak going after playing in the places we have the last few days. We're definitely confident right now and hopefully we can keep it going." The Bulls hope to keep it going as they wrap up the road trip tomorrow night in New Orleans against the Hornets (7 p.m., CSN).

College Basketball

• Illinois held off a second-half rally by Penn State to beat the Nittany Lions 77-67. Five Illini hit double-digits, led by D.J. Richardson who had 20 points and Bill Cole who had 12.
• Notre Dame put up a fight against No. 3 Villanova in the first half, but the Wildcats pulled away in the second half for a solid 90-72 victory over the Irish. Luke Harangody had 20 points and 9 rebounds for Notre Dame and Tim Abromaitis added 16.
• NIU also put up a first half fight only to see it melt away in the second as the Ohio Bobcats pulled away for a 99-84 win. This in spite of a 31 point performance from Xavier Silas.