Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Nov 20, 2008 4:00PM

Portland Rips The Bulls
In what was easily one of their worst performances of the season, the Bulls got absolutely trounced by the Portland Trail Blazers 116-74. We know, it's the Circus Trip, but this is only game two, so that excuse is out the window. The game that featured the last two No. 1 picks in the NBA Draft (2007's Greg Oden - Portland, and 2008's Derrick Rose - Chicago) turned out to be completely one-sided. The Blazers took advantage of terrible shooting by the Bulls and raced out to a 34-13 lead and cruised the rest of the way. If you're looking for a silver lining, you can stop. Nocioni led all Bulls in scoring, putting in 13 off the bench while Gordon and Gooden both added 11. Things don't get any easier with four games - against Golden State, Denver, Utah, and San Antonio - in the next six days and Luol Deng sidelined with a pulled groin he suffered against the Lakers.

Northern Illinois Romps Over Kent State
We tuned into ESPN last night for the Northern Illinois game...only to find it was Ball State instead. Thank you, ESPN, for confusing us with all these mid-week MAC games. Anyway, Laura's Huskies had no trouble becoming bowl eligible with a 42-14 win over Kent State. QB Chandler Harnish accounted for 290 total yards and four touchdowns as the Huskies rode a big second half in which they outscored Kent State 28-7. The one potential problem for the Huskies? Four other MAC teams are also bowl eligible with two more possibly to join them. The MAC has only three automatic bids (the Motor City, GMAC and International bowls). Still, with 34 total bowls (29 non-BCS) the Huskies have a shot, but thanks to the new 12-game season, there are 61 bowl eligible teams as of today according to ESPN, with many more still poised to achieve eligibility, so NIU will need a win over Navy next (sigh) Tuesday to help its cause.