HOUSTON—James Harden had 42 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists to rally the Houston Rockets past the Bulls 121-117 in overtime Friday night.Harden hit a step-back jumper over Paul Zipser with 36.1 seconds remaining in the extra period and was fouled. He made the free throw to give the Rockets a two-point lead they never relinquished.After losing to Atlanta on Thursday night, the Rockets improved to 12-1 this season in the second of back-to-back games.The Bulls played without star forward Jimmy Butler, who was nursing a bruised heel. Starting in his place, Michael Carter-Williams had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists before fouling out with two minutes remaining in overtime.Harden hit a step-back jumper over Carter-Williams to tie the game at 108 with 27.3 seconds remaining in regulation.On the next possession, Dwyane Wade lost his dribble when guarded by Trevor Ariza, leading to a shot-clock violation with 3.3 seconds to go. Harden tried the same move against Carter-Williams at the buzzer, but his shot fell short.The Bulls dominated the Rockets’ interior defense, outscoring Houston 60-46 in the paint. Taj Gibson scored 20 points for the Bulls, and Wade had 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists.The Rockets built a lead that reached 17 midway through the second quarter as they opened the period on a 26-7 run, all with Harden on the bench. The visitors cut Houston’s lead to 60-49 at halftime.The Bulls started the third quarter on a run of their own, outscoring the Rockets 24-12 out of the extended halftime break and entered the fourth quarter with a two-point lead.

NOTES—In a special halftime ceremony, the Rockets retired Yao Ming’s No. 11 jersey with a dedication that featured Yao’s family, former teammates, fellow Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo as well as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver…..In the fourth quarter, Zipser was elbowed in the face by Harden on a rebound and called for a foul. After a review, Harden also received a technical foul. . Zipser, Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic all scored in double figures off the bench…..Harden scored his 10,000th point with the Rockets late in the second quarter. He passed Yao for sixth place in franchise history. Harden scored 2,795 points in his first three seasons with Oklahoma City. . Ryan Anderson’s shooting woes continued as he went 0 for 7 from the field, including 0 for 6 from 3-point range. He also missed both his free throw attempts.The Bulls have a game at Sacramento on Monday night, the third stop on a six-game road trip.

GLENDALE—The first period was one of Blackhawks best all season, but it gave way to a penalty-ridden second. Through it all, the Hawks found a cure for their ailing power play and stopped a three-game slide.Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, Duncan Keith added two assists and the Blackhawks defeated the Arizona Coyotes 4-3 on Thursday night.The Hawks led twice by three goals but yielded three in the second period and had to hold on. Ryan Hartman, Marian Hossa and Artemi Panarin also scored for the Blackhawks.Christian Dvorak and Brendan Perlini each had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes. Oliver Ekman-Larsson also scored for Arizona.The Blackhawks scored twice in 72 seconds during the first period, their initial goal coming 15 seconds into a power play. Kane’s left-handed shot pinged off the crossbar and down into the cage at 8:44.Hartman made it 2-0 at the 9:56 mark, his long shot zipping through several players in front and past Arizona goalie Mike Smith.

”One of our best periods in a long time,” Hossa said. ”It’s nice to have a few power-play goals to be able to give us some confidence.”

Smith finished with 22 saves, but several kept the Coyotes in the game. Corey Crawford turned aside 24 shots for the Blackhawks, who entered with one goal on their last 20 power plays, scored on the man advantage again at 14:15. Hossa, stopped by Smith on a breakaway early in the game, zoomed past defender Alex Goligoski and fired in on the move for a 3-0 lead.Hossa’s 19 goals lead the Blackhawks this season.

”Power play did some nice things. Great shot by Kaner, showed some speed in the middle, did some good things in the zone as well,” Joel Quenneville said. ”Nice to get that going. That really helped us get off to such a great start in the game.”

As always out here, many in the sellout crowd of 17,125 wore Blackhawks jerseys. Coyotes fans finally got their chance to cheer when defenseman Luke Schenn and Andrew Desjardins threw punches late in the period.Schenn got the better of the fight, leaving Desjardins bloodied, but took the worst of the punishment as far as penalty minutes. Schenn was handed seven minutes for fighting and instigating, and a 10-minute misconduct.Two quick penalties nine seconds apart to start the second period gave the Coyotes a 5-on-3 power play, and Ekman-Larsson scored off a pass from Radim Vrbata to cut the Blackhawks’ lead to 3-1. Arizona has scored in the second period of six straight games.Panarin made it 4-1 at 5:24 with his 18th goal of the season. Kane helped set it up when he fought for a loose puck, and was credited with an assist.The Coyotes benefited from 10 second-period minutes in penalties against the Blackhawks and made it 4-2 at 14:24 when Dvorak got a deflection of Shane Doan’s shot past Crawford. Perlini scored at 15:51 to cut the margin to one, and the Blackhawks had to kill what started as a 5-on-3 disadvantage in the closing minutes of the period.Crawford did the splits to block a try from Alex Burmistrov during that Coyotes power play.Arizona pulled Smith for an extra attacker with 1:25 to play, but couldn’t come up with a tying goal.

”I liked how we stabilized the game in the third period,” Quenneville said.

NOTES—The Blackhawks are 14-3-4 in their last 21 games against Arizona, and 9-2-1 on the road. … The Hawks served three delay-of-game penalties in the second period. … Smith passed Bob Essensa for most saves in franchise history. Smith needed 14 to surpass Essensa and has 8,064. … Coyotes forward Max Domi returned from a broken hand. Domi, out since Dec. 9, needed surgery and missed 23 games. ”It’s going to take him some games to get up to speed,” Tippett said….The Blackhawks are at Dallas on Saturday, the third stop on a six-game road swing. It’s the team’s second-longest trip this season.

OKLAHOMA CITY—Jimmy Butler scored 28 points to help the Bulls rout the Oklahoma City Thunder 128-100 on Wednesday night.Dwyane Wade had 18 points and seven assists for the Bulls, who shot 60 percent from the field overall and 68 percent in the second half.Russell Westbrook had 28 points and eight assists and Jerami Grant scored a season-high 15 points for the Thunder, who lost their third straight overall and had their five-game home winning streak snapped. It took until the fourth quarter for someone other than Westbrook to reach 10 points for the Thunder. Oklahoma City shot just 38 percent from the field and made 10 of 37 3-pointers. It was the second-worst loss of the season for Oklahoma City, behind a 34-point loss in Memphis.Butler scored 18 points in the first half to help the Bulls take a 55-47 lead at the break.The Bulls started the second half on a 17-4 run to take a 72-51 lead. The Thunder trimmed the deficit to 14, but the Bulls bounced right back and led 94-73 at the end of the third quarter.Westbrook played less than a minute in the fourth quarter, sitting down for good with 8:14 remaining and the Bulls ahead 108-82.

NOTES—Jerian Grant and his brother, Jerami were on opposing teams. Jerian scored 12 points. The game ended with Jerami playfully guarding Jerian. … Cristiano Felicio made a hook shot as time expired in the first quarter to put the Bulls up 21-20. … C Robin Lopez was issued a technical foul in the third quarter. … The Bulls won 105-96 on Christmas Day last season in Oklahoma City…..Enes Kanter missed his third consecutive game with a fractured right forearm. He was on the bench with a cast on the arm. … F Domantas Sabonis went 0 for 5 in the first half and finished 1 for 10 with two points.The Bulls will play at Houston on Friday.

WEST LAFAYETTE—When junior forward Vince Edwards rediscovered his shooting touch Wednesday night, it gave No. 23 Purdue a whole new look.Perhaps the transformation will come in time to make a Big Ten title push.Edwards scored 17 points and knocked down a season-high five 3-pointers, leading the Boilermakers to an 80-59 rout over No. 25 Northwestern.

“I was just being confident and having fun,” Edwards said after his best game since mid-December. “I just played hard and didn’t even think about it, just playing the way I know how to play.”

If Edwards keeps having this much fun, opponents certainly won’t because of Purdue’s one-two punch.Of course, Caleb Swanigan did his customary inside work – 24 points and 16 rebounds for his 19th double-double of the season. But with Edwards & Co. shooting so well, the Wildcats never had a chance.Purdue diced up the conference’s best 3-point defense by going 9 of 14 in the first half and finishing 12 of 23. Over the last three games, the Boilermakers (18-5, 7-3) are 37 of 69 from beyond the arc (53.6 percent).If they can keep it up, they will be tough to beat – as Northwestern (18-5, 7-3) found out.

“The 3-point shooting was certainly the story of the game in the first half,” Wildcats coach Chris Collins said. “They’re a very good team and they got us tonight.”

The Wildcats’ six-game winning streak in conference play ended on a night when they were without Scottie Lindsey, their leading scorer. He stayed home because of the flu and will have some extra time to recuperate while Northwestern has an open weekend.Without Lindsey, Northwestern wasn’t the same.Bryant McIntosh returned to his home state and finished with 22 points but was the only Wildcats player to reach double figures. Northwestern finished with its second-lowest scoring total of the season.Purdue took control with a 12-0 run midway through the first half, extended the lead to 45-23 at halftime and pushed the margin to 26 early in the second half.The Wildcats couldn’t get closer than 14 after that.

“When Vince Edwards made the shots, that opened things up,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “And we needed Vince to have some positive reinforcement.”

The Wildcats came up one win short of matching the longest Big Ten winning streak in school history. But without Lindsey, perhaps that should have been expected. While a road loss to a ranked team without their best player shouldn’t hurt their NCAA Tournament cause, it could knock the Wildcats out of next week’s AP Top 25 poll .The Boilermakers rebounded from a loss at Nebraska with an impressive home victory. Purdue has now won at least 12 home games in each of the last 12 seasons. If they maintain the balance they had Wednesday, the Boilermakers could rise again in the Top 25 – and the conference standings.The Boilermakers have not lost consecutive games this season. In fact, they didn’t lose two in a row during the 2015-16 regular season, either. The last time Purdue dropped two straight regular-season games was March 2015, at Ohio State and Michigan State.Collins didn’t sound too worried about the loss.

“This is just a hard building and a great place to play,” he said, reminding people not to overreact about a team that is 4-2 in conference road games. “If you get a deficit, it’s hard to climb out of it.”

Northwestern returns home to host in-state rival Illinois next Tuesday.

NORMAL—Paris Lee scored 18 points as Missouri Valley Conference leader Illinois State notched its 12th-straight win, beating Northern Iowa 57-51 on Wednesday night.Lee was 6 of 15 from the floor for the Redbirds (19-4, 11-0 MVC). Phil Fayne added 17 points and 10 rebounds and Deontae Hawkins had 11 points and nine rebounds.Lee made two 3-pointers, a layup, and a pair of free throws late in the first half to give the Redbirds a 21-12 lead with 3:19 to play in the period. They had a 23-19 edge at intermission.Fayne contributed six points to an 8-0 surge midway through the second that put Illinois State up 38-28 with 7:42 left. Northern Iowa closed it to 55-51 with 14 seconds to go but Lee drained two free throws with 11 seconds remaining to finish the scoring.Jeremy Morgan led the Panthers (10-12, 5-6) with 12 points.

CARBONDALE—Mike Rodriguez scored 15 points and lead all five Southern Illinois starters in double-figure and the Salukis handed Bradley a 20-point Missouri Valley Conference loss 85-65 on Wednesday night.The Salukis led by 10 points with less than two minutes left in the first half but Bradley rallied to trail by six, 36-30, at intermission.Thik Bol hit a jumper and dunked and Sean Lloyd got to the basket for a layup and Southern Illinois needed just 90 seconds to push its advantage to a dozen points, 42-30.Rodriguez hit 4 of 9 from the field, including 2 of 3 from distance, and dished out six assists to lead the Salukis (13-11, 6-5). Bol had 14 points and six boards.Darrell Brown and JoJo McGlaston each scored 14 points to lead Bradley (8-16, 3-8) and Jayden Hodgson added another 11 points.

SAN JOSE—Tomas Hertl’s long wait between goals ended and Patrick Marleau closed in on a major milestone for the San Jose Sharks.Hertl’s first goal in more than three months broke a tie with 2:03 remaining in regulation after Marleau scored his 499th career goal, helping the Sharks win for the seventh time in eight games, 3-1 over the Blackhawks on Tuesday night.After missing 32 games with a knee injury, Hertl got his first goal since Oct. 27 in his second game back in the lineup when he knocked in the rebound of Brent Burns’ shot to give San Jose the win in the first game back from the All-Star break.

”I should have buried a couple goals before,” Hertl said. ”But I’m happy I scored because it was a long time, like three months. It was a big celly for me.”

Joe Pavelski added an empty-netter to cap a night that nearly included a milestone for Marleau. He had an apparent goal wiped off by an offside call on replay before scoring No. 499 in the second period. That gave Marleau six goals in the past four games as he surges toward becoming the 45th player to reach 500.

”It always feels good when you score and win, so it’s good,” Marleau said. ”Hopefully I won’t have too long.”

Martin Jones made 24 saves as the Sharks matched last season’s home win total of 18 games.Dennis Rasmussen scored and Corey Crawford made 26 saves for the Blackhawks, who have lost three straight games. The Hawks led going into the third period in losses to Tampa Bay and Winnipeg before the break before giving up the late tiebreaking goal to the Sharks.

”We had two minutes to go there, we just wanted to make sure we could get it to overtime and look for the extra point,” coach Joel Quenneville said. ”Three games in a row we’ve given up some points. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

After a slow start to the game with few chances for the first 30 minutes, the action picked up in the last half of the second period. It started when Marleau appeared to score when he took the rebound of Logan Couture’s missed shot off the back boards and tucked it in for a goal. But the Blackhawks challenged the play, believing Mikkel Boedker was offside on the entry, and replay wiped the goal off the board.Just a few minutes later with Artem Anisimov in the box for holding, Marleau did get No. 499 when he beat Crawford with a shot from the circle for his 18th goal of the season.The Sharks had a chance to add on to the lead, but Crawford stopped Timo Meier on a breakaway. The Hawks then got the equalizer when Rasmussen beat Jones with a shot off the inside of the post from the top of the circle on a rush.But that was all the Blackhawks would get.

”I thought it was better than the last two or three games,” defenseman Duncan Keith said. ”We did a lot of good things. It’s just a tough way to lose in the last couple of minutes.”

NOTES—Blackhawks F Marcus Kruger (ill) sat out the game. … Sharks GM Doug Wilson got a nice ovation after a video tribute for having recently become the fourth man to play in at least 1,000 games and be general manager for at least 1,000 games. …The Hawks went 0 for 3 on the power play and is just 1 for its last 20 with the man advantage….The Blackhawks visit Arizona on Thursday night.

CHAMPAIGN—With just over 10 minutes left in the game, Illinois started to pull off the improbable, but No. 10 Wisconsin made sure the impossible didn’t happen in its 57-43 win Tuesday night.The Badgers’ lead fell to six points after reaching as much as 16, but the experienced players led the way and told their teammates to weather the storm, because it was going to end.

”We knew the water would eventually find its level and it did,” Ethan Happ said.

Happ scored 14 points for Wisconsin (19-3, 8-1 Big Ten), which started the game with a 16-2 run and never trailed.Much of the hot start came from the open 3-pointers Illinois allowed Wisconsin’s players to take – the Badgers shot 7 of 23 from 3-point range in the game.The Badgers shot 12 percent from 3-point range against Rutgers on Saturday.

”The difference were (the shots) were going in,” Happ said. ”We just want our guys to keep on shooting and have confidence.”

While Wisconsin didn’t play offensively for much of the game, the team’s defense limited Illinois from getting into any type of rhythm and the Illini only went to the free throw line nine times.

The Badgers’ big men dominated the game in the post, out-rebounding Illinois 45-36, including 19-6 on the offensive boards.

Nigel Hayes scored 11 points and added eight rebounds for Wisconsin, part of a group effort rather than a game dominated by either Hayes or Happ.Malcolm Hill and Maverick Morgan both had 10 points for Illinois (13-10, 3-7).The Illini looked overmatched as they have for much of the season against good opponents, but they came back and closed Wisconsin’s lead down to as much as six points before falling short.Illinois shot 28 percent from the field and 5 of 21 from beyond the arc.

”You get down 16-2, it’s tough for anybody to come back,” Illinois coach John Groce said. ”You have to make shots.”

The Badgers will have a relatively easy next couple of games before playing Northwestern and Maryland, their last test before the Big Ten Tournament.The Illini weren’t expected to win Tuesday’s game even if it was at home. The team is in a tailspin and no game on the schedule looks like a lock.A win over Illinois isn’t going to help in the rankings. Both Kentucky and Virginia should remain above the Badgers in the next rankings.Khalil Iverson of Wisconsin put together a good performance off the bench, scoring six points in 15 minutes.Illinois finished the game with seven assists, tying the second-fewest this season.Wisconsin will have a few days before Indiana comes to Madison for a Sunday afternoon game.Illinois stays home for the week when it hosts Minnesota on Saturday.
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ROSEMONT—Rodney Pryor hit four 3-pointers and had 26 points, L.J. Peak scored five points in the final minute and Georgetown got past DePaul 76-73 on Tuesday night.Peak drove it from past the 3-point arc, made a layup and completed the 3-point play with 55 seconds left to give Georgetown a 74-73 lead. Tre’Darius McCallum’s layup attempt on the other end was challenged by three defenders and blocked by Jessie Govan with 40 seconds left.Georgetown elected not to call timeout and Peak dribbled down the clock, split a double team and zigzagged in the lane for a layup with 13.9 to go. After a timeout, DePaul was pressured into a broken play and McCallum had a 3-pointer bounce out at the buzzer.Jessie Govan added 14 points and Peak finished with 13 for Georgetown (13-10, 4-6 Big East).Billy Garrett Jr. scored 25 points for DePaul (8-14, 1-8) and Eli Cain had 19 points, six rebounds and three assists.Garrett hit a pair of free throws with 4:42 left in the second half to pass Stephen Howard (528) for the most career free throws in program history. Cain scored 15 of his points in the second half.