Bulls Fall 98-92 to Raptors 905

The Windy City Bulls (1-3), presented by BMO Harris Bank, the official NBA Development League affiliate of the Chicago Bulls, sliced a 22 point deficit to four with 14.3 seconds remaining in Thursday afternoon’s game against the host Raptors 905, but ran out of time and fell to the Toronto affiliate 98-92.

Guard Spencer Dinwiddie led the Bulls with 24 points and eight assists, including nine points in the final 1:03 to make things interesting down the stretch.

Forward Thomas Walkup and guard Aaron Thomas each scored 16 points while forward J.J. Avila rounded out the Bulls double figure scoring performers with 14 points.

The Bulls also received another strong performance off of the bench by forward Alfonzo McKinnie who provided nine points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes.

Raptors 905 (3-0) were led by Fred VanVleet who scored 25 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists.

Leading 15-13 with 4:03 left in the first quarter, the Raptors used a 19-0 run to extend their lead to 34-15 just minutes into the second quarter.

Maintaining a 50-32 lead at the half, Raptors 905 seemed to be on their way to an easy victory, but Windy City began to mount a comeback and trailed just 68-58 at the start of the fourth.

A three-pointer by Walkup closed the gap to 80-75 with just under five minutes remaining, but the Raptors 905 pushed their lead back to 10 on a layup by VanVleet and three-pointer by Axel Toupane with 3:08 to play.

The Bulls refused to go away as Walkup quickly answered with another three-pointer and in the closing minute of action, another three point shot by Dinwiddie brought Windy City to within four points before VanVleet was intentionally fouled by the Bulls and iced the game at the free throw line.

The Bulls return home to the Sears Centre Arena for a weekend doubleheader when they host the Oklahoma City Blue on Friday and Delaware 87ers on Saturday night at 7 PM. On Friday, all fans are encouraged to donate a Teddy Bear in the first annual Windy City Bulls Teddy Bear Toss benefiting Gigi’s Playhouse of Hoffman Estates. Visit WindyCityBulls.com for more information and to purchase tickets to these and all Bulls home games.