PEORIA—Tyshon Pickett scored 18 points and Walt Lemon Jr. added 14 on Wednesday night, helping Bradley roll to a 77-42 victory over Mississippi Valley State.Pickett also grabbed nine rebounds to help Bradley (8-2) win its third straight.Bradley shot 50 percent from the floor, while MVSU (0-7) shot just 28 percent, including just 1 of 17 from 3-point range.MVSU also had 24 turnovers, leading to 25 points for Bradley.Julius Francis scored 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds for MVSU who return only one of its 11 lettermen that produced a 21-13 record last season.This game was a second-round game in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. All teams will move on to Las Vegas for games this weekend.

GREEN BAY—Kiefer Sykes scored 20 points as Green Bay beat Marquette 49-47 Wednesday night in a nonconference game.Greg Mays added 11 points and five rebounds for the Phoenix (4-7), who gave coach Brian Wardle his first victory against his alma mater.The Phoenix, who entered the game having lost four in a row and seven of the last eight, beat the Golden Eagles for only the third time in 12 meetings.Jamil Wilson had 16 points for Marquette (7-3), which saw its four-game winning streak snapped.Wardle played for Marquette from 1997-2001 and was 0-2 coaching against his former school.

Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer scored 21 points apiece, Joakim Noah had a triple-double and the Bulls beat the Boston Celtics 100-89 on Tuesday night.Noah had 11 points, 13 rebounds and a career high-tying 10 assists for his second career triple-double, and the Bulls evened a 101-95 home loss to Boston on Nov. 12.Nate Robinson scored 18 points and keyed a fourth-quarter surge that put the game out of reach.Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with 26 points and eight assists. Paul Pierce added 16 points.The Celtics have lost a season-high three straight games, all on the road.The Bulls improved to 4-2 in the second of back-to-back games this season. They bounced back from an 80-71 loss in Memphis on Monday, putting up their lowest point total in five seasons.One bright spot for Boston was that Rondo turned the ball over just three times after totaling 14 in his previous two outings. Rondo turned the ball over 33 times in Boston’s six games coming in.The Bulls blew the game open with a 16-5 run to start the fourth quarter. Robinson hit three of his five 3-pointers during the run and scored 15 of his 18 points from behind the arc.Noah fed Taj Gibson for his 10th assist with 8:07 to go in the fourth, increasing the advantage to 15. His previous triple-double came against Milwaukee on Feb. 22.Gibson scored a season-high 13 points off the bench, seven in the fourth quarter.Robinson and Jimmy Butler scored six points each as the Bulls extended their lead to 13 points in the second quarter. Robinson two 3-pointers, and the Bulls shot 54 percent in the first half.Boston closed the half with a 7-2 run, with Rondo banking in a 3-pointer and scoring a layup to pull the Celtics within 55-48 at the break. Rondo had 13 points and five assists in the opening half, while Kevin Garnett added 10 points and seven boards while hitting all five of his shots from the floor.Rondo had 13 points and three assists in the third quarter and brought the Celtics within three on a layup with 3:40 to go in the period. The Bulls scored the next nine points and led 79-70 entering the final period.Boston was outscored 30-12 after narrowing the lead to three in the third. Garnett was 0 for 5 and went scoreless after halftime.Deng scored 14 points in the first quarter, going 8 for 8 from the line as the Bulls took a 28-23 lead. Noah assisted on the Bulls first four field goals and finished with six rebounds and five assists in the period.

NOTES—The Bulls held their previous two opponents under 40 percent shooting, but Boston was at 44 percent. …The Bulls has held 13 of their last 14 opponents under 100 points. … Fan favorite Brian Scalabrine made his return to the United Center as a Celtics broadcaster. Scalabrine was a reserve on the Bulls the last two seasons before retiring during the summer. Towards the end of Bulls victories, fans would usually chant his name in an effort to entice Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau to insert him into the game. A few fans chanted “Scal-a-brine” towards the end of Tuesday’s game.

MACOMB—Terrell Parks had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Ceola Clark added 14 points and eight assists to lead Western Illinois to a 70-54 victory against UIC in a battle of former Conference rivals on Tuesday night.Jack Houpt scored 12 points for the Leathernecks (8-3), who took permanent control with a 12-0 run over a 4:17 stretch in the second half.Joey Miller had 15 points and Josh Crittle 14 for the Flames (9-2), whose eight-game winning streak was snapped.Five points by Parks and a 3-pointer by Ceola highlighted the 12 consecutive points Western used to pull away. UIC trailed by just two points before going scoreless in a stretch of 6:24 in which it went 0 for 5 from the floor with two turnovers.A free throw by Parks made the score 48-34 with 9:49 remaining, and the Flames got no closer than nine the rest of the way.

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacherhasn’t played for two weeks due to a hamstring injury, but he’s still getting in his shots off the field.

Urlacher blasted Bears fans and the media on Sunday for being critical of coach Lovie Smith while appearing on WFLD-TV, after the 21-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field. Smith is under fire on all sides as the Bears have lost five out of six games and are in danger of becoming the first team to start 7-1 and miss the playoffs since the league realigned into four divisions in 2002.

“I know there are a lot of experts in the media, a bunch of smart guys out there who know exactly what they’re talking about all the time,” Urlacher said. “They don’t know what they’re talking about. Lovie is the head coach of this football team and hopefully will be for a long time.”

Urlacher’s criticism of fans was leveled especially at those who say Smith is too unemotional or detached during games.

“He’s not going to call a player out in front of the people, he’ll do it privately, which is the way it should be handled,” Urlacher said. “He’s not one of those coaches who’s going to go out there and yell and scream at you. That’s just not his style and we appreciate that. We know when it’s time to play, we just haven’t played well. It’s not his fault we haven’t played well. He can’t get out there and do it for us, we have to do it ourselves.”

Fans at Sunday’s game took a big hit from Urlacher, as well.

“Our crowd was pretty good today for the most part,” Urlacher said. “They were loud for a minute there, the boos were really loud, which is always nice. The only team in our division that gets booed at home is us. It’s incredible to me.

“Believe it, don’t believe it, we don’t care. We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we can. The guys that are healthy will play and we’ll do the best we can.”

MEMPHIS—The Memphis Grizzlies were struggling early against the stingy Bulls, taking bad shots and committing turnovers.Then the Grizzlies’ bench took over, providing the burst that helped Memphis beat the Bulls 80-71 on Monday night.

“I thought it was huge what they did,” Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said of the second-period play by the reserves. “They came in and changed the game, changed the tempo. They got it going up and down a little bit. Got the ball movement where we like it to be.I think the first unit saw what they were doing, and what they were able to do,” Conley said. “[We] got back in the game and tried to mimic it.”

Conley led Memphis with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and four assists, while Zach Randolph added 10 points and 15 rebounds.Rudy Gay had 12 points for Memphis but shot 5 for 13, continuing his slump. Wayne Ellington scored all 11 of his points in the second quarter, when the Grizzlies’ reserves provided the lift after a sluggish first period, when Memphis managed only 11 points for its lowest output in the opening quarter this season.Carlos Boozer led the Bulls with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Marco Belinelli finished with 13 points. Luol Deng and Joakim Noah had 11 points apiece for the Bulls, but Deng was 4 for 17 from the field.

“I thought our defense was pretty good,” Noah said, adding: “We are getting good stops, and we are getting on the break, but we are just not getting those easy points. We are turning the ball over a little bit too much on the break. If we can score on those, we can be better.”

Both teams shot just better than 37 percent. But Memphis was 6 for 11 from 3-point range compared to the Bulls hitting only 2 of 11 long-range shots. The Memphis frontline of Gay, Randolph and Marc Gasol were a combined 10 of 34, while the Bulls starting frontline of Deng, Boozer and Noah made 16 of 42.Memphis controlled the boards 51-39 and had 18 offensive rebounds.

“I thought the second quarter was the problem,” Tom Thibodeau said. “We were outscored 28-14. We had a great first quarter, terrible second quarter and got outrebounded on the road.”

The Grizzlies shot 4 for 22 in the first quarter and had six turnovers causing them to fall behind.But the Memphis bench brought an energy in the second that was missing from the starters. Quincy Pondexter, Jerryd Bayless and Ellington contributed on the offensive end, hitting all five of their shots from 3-point range in the period.Ellington had 11 points in the second to lead Memphis to a 39-34 lead at the break, the Grizzlies biggest lead of the half.

“As a second unit, we just try to come in and be aggressive and bring some intensity and share the basketball,” Ellington said. “Tonight, it was coming my way, and I was knocking down shots.When you see a couple go down, as a basketball player, it’s kind of natural to just get in that zone,” Ellington continued. “I got pretty hot in the first half.”

Boozer had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and grabbed eight rebounds for the Bulls in the half.The leading scorers on both teams were struggling at that point. Deng, who averages 17.8 per game, was limited to four points on 2 of 7 from the field.Gay, meanwhile, missed all six of his shots in the half and was scoreless.Memphis extended the lead to 61-53 entering the fourth, as Conley scored seven in the third. Noah had six points.Marreese Speights connected on a tip-in to open the fourth for the first double-digit lead of the game at 63-53.The Bulls turned up the defensive pressure at that point, becoming much more active in challenging the Grizzlies and pushing them to uncomfortable passes.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said. “They defend everybody. You look at what they’re missing with (injured players) Richard Hamilton and Derrick Rose out, and they still win games because they defend you and make you earn everything.”

The Bulls tried to get Deng involved in the fourth, but he hit only 3 of 12 shots by the time the game reached the midway point of the final quarter.The Bulls got within five points when Jimmy Butler scored on a breakaway dunk with 5:05 left. Memphis then extended the lead back to double digits, providing enough of a buffer for the Grizzlies to win their second straight.

“We’ll take it,” Randolph said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we got the win.”

NOTES—Thibodeau said before the game that Rose’s rehab of his left knee injury continues on schedule. There is no timetable for his return, he said….Rose, who played one year at the University of Memphis before turning pro, has returned to play at the FedExForum only twice in his five years in the league….The Bulls are 2-9 all-time in Memphis…..Kirk Hinrich returned after missing two games with a bruised left knee. “It didn’t feel as good as I would like to by any means, but it was good enough to go out there and play.”…..There was a 27-second moment of silence before The Star-Spangled Banner — 26 for each of the victims of the Newtown, Conn., shooting and another for a Memphis police officer killed while serving a search warrant on Friday only hours before the Newtown slayings…..The 71 points was a season low for the Bulls. The previous low was 76 against Indiana on Dec. 4…..Gay’s 12 points ended his streak of consecutive games with at least 14 points at 24.

EVANSTON—Dave Sobolewski scored 18 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:45 left to give Northwestern a lead, and the Wildcats closed the game on a 12-0 run to defeat Texas State 74-68 on Monday night.The Bobcats led 68-62 with less than 4 minutes left, but five straight free throws, two each by Sobolewski and Reggie Hearn and one by Jared Swopshire, cut it to 68-67. After Sobolewski connected on his jump shot to put Northwestern (8-3) ahead 70-68, free throws by Alex Marcotullio, Sobolewski and Swopshire completed the scoring.Hearn finished with 15 points and Tre Demps added 12.Texas State’s Joel Wright and Wesley Davis each had 19 points. The Bobcats (4-7) used an 8-0 run midway through the second half to take a 64-60 lead, capped by Matt Staff’s layup with 5:56 left.

SOUTH BEND—Pat Connaughton has been a steady performer for No. 22 Notre Dame so far this season. He took his game to another level Monday night in a 74-62 victory over IPFW.Connaughton more than doubled his 7.9 points-per-game average and had six rebounds and five assists.

“I think it was just a matter of playing the whole game,” Connaughton said, referring to the quality rather than quantity of his minutes. “It’s something I’ve been waiting to do. Attacking the basketball. It’s something people have been harping on me to do, and it’s something that’s going to help the team.”

Connaughton was 7 of 9 from the field, repeatedly driving strong to the hoop and taking his defenders off the dribble with apparent ease.

“That was the goal,” said the 6-foot-5 sophomore who plays both guard and forward. “The easiest shots are nearest the basket. That’s something I’ve always thought, and that’s just something I needed to bring from practice to the game.”

His finger roll in the lane off an assist by Jerian Grant made it 23-14 with 8:24 left in the first half.He hit a layup while drawing a foul with 5 seconds left in the first half, then hit the free throw to increase Irish lead to 12.

“You’re really between a rock and a hard place defending him,” IPFW coach Tony Jasick said. “If you don’t help, the other guys get to the basket, and if you do stay and help, they are good at finding him.”

Notre Dame (10-1) led 40-28 at halftime, then opened the second half with a 9-5 run over the first 4:21, capped by a two-handed stuff by Jack Cooley off a full-court fastbreak pass from Grant. The Irish extended their lead to 19 points on a layup by Garrick Sherman with 13:35 to play.Cooley had 14 points and eight rebounds, while Scott Martin scored 13 points on 3-for-5 shooting from 3-point range.Luis Jacobo and Joe Edwards both scored 11 points for the Mastodons (5-7).IPFW shot 36 percent from the field while the Irish made 52 percent.Martin got the Irish off to a fast start, hitting two of his first three 3-point attempts, both from the corner.IPFW asserted its athleticism early in the game, scoring three of their first four baskets on tip-ins. IPFW outperformed Notre Dame in steals, 3-point percentage, free throw percentage, bench scoring and points off turnovers, and they turned the ball over less than the Irish.But the Mastodons couldn’t overcome their poor shooting, hitting just 36 percent from the field in the first half. They improved their accuracy to 41 percent in the second half but it wasn’t enough to chip away at the deficit.Each time IPFW seemed ready to spark a run with an explosive offensive play, Notre Dame answered at their end with one of their own.Edwards’ floater in the lane cut the lead to 28-21 with 4:35 to go in the first half. But then Grant responded with a 10-footer in the lane 38 seconds later.

Forget about the Bears regaining the NFC North Title, that’s all over. The Green Bay Packers clinched their second straight division crown with a 21-13 victory over their archrivals Sunday — at Soldier Field, no less.Aaron Rodgers connected with James Jones on all three touchdowns, Clay Matthews hounded Jay Cutler with two sacks and the Packers limited the Bears to just 190 yards, their third-lowest total of the season. Rodgers finished 23 of 36 for 291 yards as Green Bay won its sixth straight against the Bears.Brandon Marshall had a 15-yard TD catch for the Bears. But Cutler had another dismal day against the Packers, throwing an interception that led to Green Bay’s second touchdown, and Alshon Jeffery was whistled for three offensive pass interference calls late in the second half.The Bears have lost five of six and is in danger of missing the playoffs after beginning the season 7-1. Boos rained down on the Bears in the fourth quarter, and again as they walked off the field.Packers vs. Bears is the NFL’s oldest — and fiercest — rivalry, and it got a little more heated earlier in the week when Marshall and Lance Briggs ripped on their neighbors to the north.Marshall was particularly vehement, saying he’d never disliked a team as much as he did the Packers.Green Bay had held him to 24 yards on two catches in their first meeting back in September, and the NFL’s receptions leader called the rematch “personal,” adding, “But the talk, you have to back it up. We’ll go out there and we’ll do everything we need to do to get a win.”

Marshall did his part, sidestepping one tackle and stiff-arming Casey Hayward on his way to the end zone for a touchdown that gave the Bears a 7-0 lead in the second quarter. He screamed and tossed the ball into the stands while the Bears sideline erupted in high fives and hand slaps.But the Packers silenced the Bears — and their fans — with a touchdown, interception and another touchdown, all in a three-minute span.Having already been sacked twice, Rodgers was on the run again on third-and-6 when he spotted Randall Cobb down the right sideline. He threw a dart to Cobb, who hauled it in for a 31-yard gain that put the Packers at the Bears 35. Three plays later, Rodgers connected with Jones for a 29-yard score that tied the game at 7.After exchanging punts, Cutler was looking for Devin Hester but found Hayward, instead. It was the sixth pick of the season for the rookie, who grabbed the ball at midfield and returned it 24 yards. Five plays later, Rodgers hooked up with Jones again, this time for an 8-yard catch that made it 14-7 at halftime.The Packers made it 21 unanswered points on the first drive of the second half. In another third-and-long situation, Rodgers threw incomplete to Jermichael Finley.But the Packers got a second chance when Chris Conte was called for pass interference. After a delay of game penalty on Green Bay, Rodgers found Jones for a 6-yard score.It was Jones’ first three-touchdown game and the fourth multiple-TD game of his career.The Bears had a chance to get back in the game when Charles Tillman forced a fumble by Ryan Grant and Nick Roach recovered it. The Bears got another break when Green Bay safety Morgan Burnett hauled Jeffery down right in front of the end zone – and right in front of an official. The pass interference penalty gave the Bears the ball at the Green Bay 1.But the Bears could only get a 34-yard field goal by Olindo Mare out of it after Jeffery was called for pass interference, his first of three.

The Bears close it out at Arizona next week,then in two weeks at Detroit….The next Sporting event at Soldier Field will be a College Hockey double header in February as Notre Dame faces Miami(O)and Wisconsin plays Minnesota.As for the Bears, not until next Summer.

Joakim Noah had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and helped force a key turnover Saturday night as the Bulls held off the Brooklyn Nets 83-82.Joakim Noah had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and helped force a key turnover Saturday night as the Bulls held off the Brooklyn Nets 83-82.Deron Williams missed a jumper with five seconds for the Nets that would’ve tied it. The Bulls won for the fifth time in six games.Noah and Luol Deng trapped Joe Johnson late in the game, resulting in one of Brooklyn’s 18 turnovers. Deng turned the mistake into a basket that tied it at 79. Brook Lopez had 18 points and 10 rebounds in 25 minutes for Brooklyn, which played for the fourth time in five days. The Nets won at home Friday night, beating Detroit 107-105 in double overtime.Marco Belinelli led his team with 19 points and made two free throws to cap an 8-0 run in the closing minutes. He also hit the Bulls’ only 3-pointers of the game — they shot 2 of 10 on 3s overall.Deng scored 17 points and Carlos Boozer added 15.Williams, who played 43 minutes the night before, was on the court for 35 minutesin this game and created plenty of problems for the short-handed Bulls. Missing starter Kirk Hinrich, the Bulls used Nate Robinson and Marquis Teague on Williams, who took full advantage. Robinson and Teague went back and forth to the bench for spells due to foul trouble. Williams scored a game-high 24 points, 10 of them from foul line.Johnson scored 16 points in 38 minutes. On Friday night, he played 52 minutes and hit a buzzer-beater for the win.Lopez played 25 minutes in his second game back since an injured right foot cost him seven games. He seemed to be the least-sluggish of the Nets on the floor at the start, hitting his first five shots and scoring Brooklyn’s first six points.Williams hit two free throws to cap a 13-point first quarter and give the Nets a one-point advantage.Robinson ignited the crowd with a hustle play in the first quarter, running back after making a layup to block MarShon Brooks’ bid to catch the Bulls off-guard. Robinson scored eight points and committed only one turnover starting in place of Hinrich.

NOTES—Tom Thibodeau said Hinrich is “getting better, but not quite there yet.” He was reluctant to specify anything beyond Hinrich’s day-to-day status. … Nets F Gerald Wallace, who scored a season-high 25 points in 50 minutes Friday night, scored six points in 38 minutes.