Morning Box Score
By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 15, 2009 4:50PM
Fire Doused By Real Salt Lake
It was a nail-biting loss for the Fire last night as Real Salt Lake edged Chicago 5-4 on penalty kicks to earn a trip to next weekend's MLS Cup final. After 90 minutes of scoreless play - but several opportunities for both sides - the teams played a scoreless 30 minutes of extra time and still remained all zeros. After five rounds of penalty kicks, both teams sat at 4 goals apiece and they went to extra penalty kicks. Finally, in the seventh round of kicks, the Fire's Brandon Prideaux had his shot blocked by RSL goalie Rimando and Ned Grabavoy countered for RSL, getting his shot past Fire goalie Jon Busch for the 5-4 win. Overall, the Fire had six shots on goal to RSL's eight. It's a heartbreaker of a way to end the season for the Fire as the also lost this year's SuperLiga final to Tigres UANL on penalty shots.
Bulls Tip 76ers
The Bulls ship out on the annual Circus Trip on a winning note as they tipped the 76ers last night by a 94-88 final. The Bulls dug themselves a big early hole, down 20-6 at one point in the first quarter but countered with a 16-0 run to battle back. Philly once again pulled away to start the second half, taking a 49-40 lead but, once more, the Bulls battled back and built a lead that reached 17 points at one point in the fourth. The Bulls spread out the scoring: of eight players who saw action, six scored double digits (while the other two had 0 points). Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich each scored 19 to pace the Bulls and Joakim Noah had another solid outing with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulls now pack their bags and hit the left coast to start the Circus Trip in Sacramento on Tuesday (9 pm, WGN).
College Football
- Notre Dame did its best to pull off another furious fourth quarter comeback, scoring 19 points to come back from a 20-3 deficit to #12 Pitt, but this time the comeback fell short as the Panthers held on to beat the Irish 27-22. Jimmy Clausen threw for 283 yards and a touchdown (along with an INT) and Golden Tate kept the Irish in the game with a fourth quarter TD reception and an 87-yard punt return for a TD, but the comeback fell short, sending the Irish to 6-4 on the year.
- The Northwestern Wildcats held on for a big 21-16 win over Illinois yesterday that helps brighten their bowl hopes. Down late in the first half 3-0, the Wildcats rolled off 21 straight points to build a big lead. The Illini did their best to mount a comeback but a (controversial) Northwestern interception with 32 seconds left was upheld by replay and allowed the Wildcats to run out the clock and hold on for the win.
- In a game played Thursday night, NIU earned their fourth-straight win by upending Ball State by a 26-20 final. It wasn't a flashy game as the Huskies only rolled up 225 total yards of offense, but a win's a win and the Huskies have seven of them on the year.