After three overtimes and playing nearly 50 minutes, Jrue Holiday was happy to get off the court.Winning the game was a nice bonus, too.Holiday made a three-point play with 2.6 seconds left and the New Orleans Pelicans outlasted the Bulls 131-128

“I really just wanted the game to be over, to be honest,” he said. “I felt we had some calls that didn’t go our way, but in the third overtime, we had a chance to finally close it out.”

That’s something that neither team could do before that point.The Pelicans called a timeout with 4.5 seconds, but coach Monty Williams wasn’t about to take credit for the mad scramble that left Holiday with a clear path to the basket.Holiday had 19 points and 12 assists. The point guard made an 18-foot shot with 3.9 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the score at 103 and force overtime.Ryan Anderson had a career-high 36 points on 12-of-20 shooting, including 7 for 11 on 3-pointers for the Pelicans. Eric Gordon added 23 points.Luol Deng led the Bulls with 37 points and also had eight rebounds and seven assists. Reserve Taj Gibson had 26 points and 14 rebounds. Mike Dunleavy added 23 points and Joakim Noah had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds.It was the Bulls’ first game at home following a 1-5 road trip while the circus took over the United Center for two weeks. The Bulls lost for the first time at home after winning five in a row and now have dropped six of seven.They’ve won only once since point guard Derrick Rose was lost for the season with a tear in the meniscus in his right knee.

“Right now a lot of things aren’t going our way,” Deng said. “We have to stick with it and keep fighting and keep working hard. It’s not going to turn around by itself. We have to make it happen. We’re losing a lot of close games right now. It’s something we have to get better with. Individually, I have to get better at making plays at the end of the game.This was a tough one, coming back from a trip. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t tired out there. I was tired. A lot of guys were. Our team and their team, they had a back-to-back. We made a lot of fatigue and mental mistakes at the end.”

In the first overtime, the teams traded one-point leads for nearly three minutes before Deng’s drive gave the Bulls a 109-106 advantage with 2:08 left. The Bulls then got consecutive defensive stops and had two chances to stretch the lead, but couldn’t convert. Gordon then hit a 3-pointer with 10.2 seconds to go, tying it at 109 and forcing a second OT.In double-OT, the Bulls rallied from a 118-113 deficit, taking advantage of New Orleans mistakes and tying it at 122 on Deng’s drive with 4.7 seconds to go.The Bulls jumped on top in the third overtime, but the Pelicans rallied and took a 127-126 edge on Anderson’s 3-pointer with 1:08 to go. Noah’s basket evened it at 128, setting up Holiday.

NOTES—For the second straight season, Pelicans center Anthony Davis — the No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft — missed the team’s only visit to his hometown. The 6-foot-10 big man broke his left hand Sunday in New York and is out in definitely. Last year, Davis was held out with a mild concussion. “One of the first things he said to me when I got back in the locker room was, `Two years in a row,” Williams said. “Took me a minute to realize what he was talking about. He just really wanted to play here. I feel bad for him.” …. Rose, who had surgery a week ago, didn’t attend the Bulls’ first home game since the injury. “I’ve been talking to him,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s doing fine.”

MINNEAPOLIS—Adrian Peterson thought his Minnesota Vikings had won and lost the game against the Bears about three times during a dizzying, exhilarating overtime.When the game was finally over, after two missed kicks and two made kicks, three changes of possession and one premature celebration, he walked off the Metrodome turf a winner, the nagging groin injury that has bothered him for weeks feeling just fine.Peterson carried the ball 35 times for 211 yards and Blair Walsh kicked a 34-yard field goal in overtime to lift the Vikings to a wild 23-20 victory over the Bears on Sunday.Walsh drilled his winner after a 39-yarder earlier in overtime was wiped out by a penalty and a 57-yard miss put the Bears in prime position to close it out.But the normally reliable Robbie Gould missed a 47-yarder for the Bears, leaving the door open for the tireless Peterson. He rushed nine times for 51 yards in overtime alone, including 30 on the final drive that set up Walsh.

”You’re at an all-time high because you think you’ve got a victory, and then you’re sitting there waiting for what the call is and you’re at an all-time low,” Peterson said. ”Ultimately we were able to give him another opportunity and he nailed it.”

Matt Cassel threw for 243 yards with one touchdown and one interception in relief of the injured Christian Ponder for the Vikings (3-8-1), who tied Green Bay last week.Peterson’s fifth career 200-yard game helped him surpass 10,000 yards for his career in just 101 games, third fastest to do it behind Eric Dickerson and Jim Brown.

“It’s been my mindset since I was young to be the best to ever play,” Peterson said. “You’ve got to believe it in order to accomplish it.”

Gould’s wife gave birth to the couple’s first child at 1 a.m. Sunday, and he hopped a flight from Chicago shortly after to get to the game. He said that wasn’t an excuse for the miss.

“It was one of the greatest days of my life, and I’m happy for my wife and my little boy,” Gould said. “Sorry I couldn’t do it for my teammates like I did for my wife this morning.”

Alshon Jeffery had 12 catches for 249 yards and two touchdowns for the Bears (6-6), who led by 10 points midway through the fourth quarter. Matt Forte rushed 23 times for 120 yards and Josh McCown was 23 of 36 for 355 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for the Bears.Greg Jennings had seven catches for 78 yards and a touchdown for the Vikings and was halfway up the tunnel early in overtime when Walsh’s 39-yard field goal sailed through the uprights for an apparent victory. But Rhett Ellison was flagged for a facemask while trying to block Devin Hester. Jennings had to hustle back on to the field for another play on third down to try to gain some of the yardage back. Peterson was thrown for a 3-yard loss and Walsh’s 57-yard field sailed wide left, giving the Bears the ball just across midfield.The Bears drove into Vikings territory before a decision by rookie head coach Marc Trestman cost it dearly. On second-and-7, the coach elected to let Gould try a 47-yarder. His kick went wide right, giving the Vikings new life.

“We were definitely in range, and I didn’t want to at that point in time risk a possible penalty that would set us back, similar to what happened on the other side, or a fumble of some kind,” Trestman said. “Something unique.”

With their second straight tie looming, Cassel hit Jennings for 17 yards, and the offense then rode Peterson to get Walsh in position for a second try.He buried this one, capping an unlikely comeback and prompting owner Zygi Wilf to rush the field and hug his players.Jeffery caught touchdown passes of 80 and 46 yards in the third quarter to give the Bears a 20-10 lead. Vikings defensive back Chris Cook was ejected after the second one for bumping side judge Laird Hayes while arguing for a pass interference call.But just when Jeffery had seemed to suck the life completely out of the Metrodome, Peterson delivered a jolt against a Bears defense missing six starters. Peterson ran through four tacklers for a 19-yard run that set up an 8-yard touchdown pass from Cassel to Jennings with 7:41 to play in regulation.The Vikings faced fourth-and-11 from their 8 with under two minutes to play, but Cassel positioned them for Walsh’s 30-yard field goal with 24 seconds to play.Amazingly, both teams still had a chance to win in regulation after that kick. Gould’s 66-yard prayer in the final seconds landed in Cordarrelle Patterson’s arms in the end zone, but his bid to match the miracle return from Auburn’s Chris Davis that beat Alabama on Saturday was stuffed.When it was all over, the Bears were in no mood to talk about the craziness of the game.

“We’ve got to put up a win in the win column. … The standings don’t matter if you don’t win football games,” said McCown, playing again for the injured Jay Cutler.

NOTES—Bears DE Julius Peppers had 2 1/2 sacks…..Bears LB Khaseem Greene had an interception…..Ponder left in the second quarter with a concussion…..Patterson had a 33-yard TD run in the second quarter, making him the first Vikings rookie to have score on a return, a catch and a run in the same season.

STARKVILLE—Mississippi State’s Craig Sword and Roquez Johnson combined for 44 points as the Bulldogs held off Loyola 65-64 in overtime Sunday.Sword had a game-high 24 points and put MSU (5-1) in front for good with an old-fashioned three-point play with 1:36 left in overtime. Johnson had a career-best 20 points and also his first double-double of the season with 11 rebounds.Sword was 8-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-10 from the free-throw line.MSU shot 46.8 percent from the floor and was just 4 of 16 beyond the arc. Loyola shot 42.6 percent and out-rebounded the Bulldogs 35-27.Loyola (3-5) was led by Milton Doyle’s 22 points. Christian Thomas had 12 points for the Ramblers while Devon Turk added 10 points.Doyle had an opportunity to win it at the buzzer for Loyola but his 3-point attempt at the buzzer was blocked by MSU’s Fred Thomas.The contest was just the third overall meeting between the two schools with the first game coming in the historic 1963 NCAA Tournament. The Ramblers won last year’s meeting 59-51 in what was the 50th anniversary of that initial meeting between the two programs.MSU and Loyola were tied at 29-29 at halftime despite the Bulldogs shooting 38 percent. Loyola shot 50 percent in the first half and led MSU in rebounding 15-13 but had eight first-half turnovers. MSU finished with just nine turnovers while Loyola had 14 for the game.The game was tied 13 times and featured 20 lead changes.

ROSEMONT—Cleveland Melvin scored 23 points and had seven rebounds to lead DePaul to a 93-81 win over Oregon State on Sunday.DePaul (4-3) bounced back after back-to-back blowout losses to Wichita State and Texas in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City.Brandon Young added 21 points, five assists and five rebounds and freshman Billy Garrett Jr. had 15 points and 10 assists for the Blue Demons.Devon Collier scored a career-high 32 points for Oregon State (3-2), who trailed by double digits for most of the second half.Leading 45-42 early in the second half, DePaul went on an 11-4 run. Garrett scored on a runner and Tommy Hamilton IV made a 3-pointer to increase the DePaul lead to 57-45.Melvin hit a 3-pointer and Durrell McDonald scored on a layup as the Blue Demons extended their lead to 19 with 7:18 left in the game.Garrett connected with Cleveland Melvin for an alley-oop dunk to give DePaul a 35-23 lead, but Oregon State quickly cut the deficit. Collier had a three-point play followed by a putback and Nelson made a 3-pointer to get the Beavers within two. DePaul led 43-39 at the half behind Young’s 11 first half points. Collier scored 22 points in the half for Oregon State on 8-of-10 shooting.Roberto Nelson, who came into the game averaging 27 points, didn’t score until 9:07 left in the first half and finished with 19. He was closely guarded by Young for most of the game.DePaul got a scare when it appeared Young injured his ankle midway through the second half. He had to be helped off the court, but returned to the game with 6 minutes left. He then came down hard on his knee after a layup with 3:08 left.It was a homecoming for Oregon State head coach and Chicago native Craig Robinson, who is the brother of First Lady Michelle Obama. He grew up on the South Side and was also an assistant at Northwestern.Sandi Marcius scored a career-high 15 points for DePaul and Hamilton finished with 14.