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Bucks top Bulls behind Henson's big game

Dec 11, 2013 - 6:52 AM Chicago, IL (SportsNetwork.com) - John Henson had a monster night with 25 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks as the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Chicago Bulls, 78-74, from United Center.

Brandon Knight also added a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Ersan Ilyasova chipped in with 10 points.

"We just kept fighting," Henson said. "As a young team, a scrappy team out here, that's what we got to do."

Milwaukee's leading scorer, O.J. Mayo, shot a pedestrian 2-of-12 from the field for seven points.

Mike Dunleavy paced Chicago with 24 points and Carlos Boozer netted 21 points with 12 rebounds in the loss.

"The main thing is we have to play hard and compete and grind it out," Dunleavy said. "That's a mindset thing. That's not a skill thing."

Henson capped a 10-2 run to open the fourth with a nice left-handed dunk off a feed from Mayo. Henson received the pass and dribbled baseline where he had to transfer the ball from his right to left as he was in the air for the flush.

The Bucks continued to front-run for most of the period when Dunleavy buried a triple with 1:59 to play which cut the deficit to 73-72.

Henson answered with an unorthodox shot as the shot clock was running down to extend the margin back to three with 1:35 remaining.

Henson was guarded by Taj Gibson at the top of the key and worked his pivot foot looking for someone to pass to. When the forward couldn't find anyone to hand it off to and he realized the shot clock was running out, he turned around and fired it to the rim where it hit nothing but net.

Neither team scored from that point on and the Bulls had a chance to tie it or at least make it a free throw contest down the stretch.

Chicago got the ball with 13.1 seconds left when Kirk Hinrich drove baseline and hit a cutting Boozer. Henson's sixth block of the night proved to be the biggest as he knocked it away from Boozer and the ball went out of bounds to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee hit all three attempts from the line and closed out the hard fought win.

Chicago took its first lead of the game, 28-27, after a jumper from Boozer midway through the second quarter.

Knight hit a bank-shot seconds later to regain the lead for Milwaukee, but Dunleavy scored eight points during a 10-0 run. Dunleavy's jumper with 3:48 left capped the run and had Chicago in front, 38-29.

The Bulls led 42-35 at the break.

Chicago extended the lead back to 52-43 after a Tony Snell jumper with 5:40 to go in the third. The Bucks, however, used a 12-5 run to end the period and trailed 57-55 heading into the final frame.

Game Notes

The teams split the season series last year with each winning two games on the road ... Chicago's 74 points were a season-low ... Milwaukee shot 30-of-75 (40 percent) from the floor compared to 31-of-83 (37.3 percent) from Chicago ... Milwaukee outscored the Bulls 10-2 on the fastbreak ... Both teams are back at it on Wednesday with Milwaukee hosting San Antonio and Chicago heading to the Big Apple for a meeting against the Knicks.