Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Dec 16, 2009 4:00PM

Lakers Hold Off Bulls
It was an impressive showing against (arguably) the best team in the league after a series of blow-out losses. But, ultimately, a loss is still a loss and the Chicago Bulls lost again last night, falling to the Los Angeles Lakers 96-87. Down by six at the half, the Bulls fought their way back to actually take the lead by the end of the third only to see the Lakers sprint past them on a 13-4 run to open the fourth. While Kobe's 42 point performance was the talk of the game, Derrick Rose and Luol Deng both had great performances for the Bulls, each scoring 21 points, and Joakim Noah scored 11 and pulled down 20 rebounds. But still, it was the team's 11th loss in their last 13 games. If there's any silver lining, it's that both wins came at home (where the team is 2-4 this month) and have the next three games in the comfort of the United Center. On the other hand, we'll be watching the sports-ticker closely on Christmas Eve to see if the holiday tradition of firing the team's coach continues. The Bulls next welcome in the similarly struggling Knicks on Thursday (7 p.m., CSN).

College Basketball
The struggles of NIU continued as the Huskies dropped their fourth straight game, being blown out by Minnesota 89-48. While nine Huskies scored, none broke double-digits as the team floundered, shooting less than 32 percent from the field, 10 percent from behind the three-point line, and only 61.5 percent at the line.