Windy City Bulls no match for Red Claws |
Looking to salvage at least of their three home games, the Windy City Bulls (12-20) took one of the best in the east in the Maine Red Claws (23-9) Monday Night. This game was over almost as quickly as it started as the Red Claws imposed their will early and often to roll 121-83.
If the final score isn’t bad enough for you, then the start of the game will be as the Bulls couldn’t get anything going. Tacko Fall got the first four points of the game on the inside before a pair of threes from Bryce Brown and Kaiser Gates put Maine up 10-0 early. The lead grew to 14-0 before Tre’Darius McCallum got Windy City on the board with a driving layup. Maine eventually pushed the lead up to 23-4 late in the first before Justin Simon, and Simi Shittu put in a pair of buckets late to make it 28-11 after one. As if the second quarter couldn’t get much worse, Brown had the hot hand from deep once again for Maine, as his two three-pointers got them out on another 10-2 run to stretch the lead to 38-13. Now down 50-21, Shittu began to find his rhythm as Jaron Blossomgame joined in to bring things to 55-29. A quick 5-0 run from McCallum and Daniel Dixon had Windy City back within 20, but Tremont Waters was able to push things back to 25, hitting a few shots from the line as the Bulls were down 59-36 after one half of play. By this point in the game, Windy City, it was going to take a miracle for them to come back. McCallum and Shittu found some early looks in the third quarter, but once again, Fall and company responded with another run as their 12-5 run to start the third extended the lead to 71-41. Shittu continued to have a big night around the rim, with Justin Simon finding some looks in the mid-range game, but that still didn’t matter to this point as the Bulls had no answers for the Red Claws attack. Simon and Shittu continued to control the third quarter offensively for the Bulls as they did whatever they could to try and get the momentum going. The problem was whenever Windy City appeared to have something going, Maine would respond as they closed out the third on an 18-6 run to jump out 101-60 after three. It was in the fourth when Windy City was finally able to play their style of game despite the game being long out of reach. Yes, their offense at this point was still not great, but they were able to limit the Maine offense holding them to just 20 points in the quarter. Down 45, Blossomgame went on to hit a three before Perrion Callandret got in the scoring column himself with a pair of free throws. The rest of the quarter saw the Bulls play many of their reserves as they gave them tons of minutes down the stretch. Players like Callandret, who don’t see much action, had their chance to make things happen in the fourth, but it was going to be nowhere near enough with the Red Claws controlling things start to finish 121-83. The Bulls were led by Shittu, who not only notched a season-high 26 but notched a game-high as well. McCallum finished the night with 16 with Simon chipping in with 13. After three strong games to open his Windy City career, Blossomgame was nowhere to be found Monday as he struggled to score just 12 points. The Red Claws had six players score in double figures, with Paige leading the way with 19.
