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Gordon, Rose star as Bulls gore struggling 76ers

Dec 1, 2008 - 5:16 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Ben Gordon scored 21 points and rookie Derrick Rose had a double-double to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 103-92 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.

Gordon made three 3-pointers and added six rebounds and four assists. Rose had 18 points and 10 assists while Drew Gooden had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

The Bulls trailed 55-52 at the half, but put the game away in the third quarter by outscoring the 76ers, 31-11.

"They missed a couple of shots and we took advantage of that. Before you know it, we had a bit of a lead," Chicago coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We did some good things. We moved the basketball well with 26 assists. I thought that everybody shared the ball early. We were a little bit crisper in the second half. We got out in transition and we were able to make some good shots. We shot the ball in the basket a lot better tonight."

Chicago opened the quarter with a basket by Gooden and a pair of 3-pointers by Gordon, the second capped a 17-7 run to give the Bulls a 69-60 lead with 5:40 to go. Rose added four points in the run.

Larry Hughes hit a 3-pointer with 1:18 left in the third to extend the Chicago lead to 81-66. An alley-oop dunk by Rose with 32 seconds left made it 83-66 after three.

"We played well at moving the ball and finding the open person," Rose said. "We're playing team basketball and that's what it is all about. We didn't stay rattled when the Sixers got up on us. We stayed in control we made sure we ran our plays to be effective."

Elton Brand scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Philadelphia, which has dropped four straight.

"You have to continue to play. You have to understand that you have a long way to go," Sixers guard Andre Iguodala said. "We have over 60 games left and we can't sulk. We can turn this around. We have done it before and we can so it again."

Thaddeus Young had 17 points, Andre Miller had 15 points and 10 assists, and Willie Green added 12 points. for the Sixers, who have scored less than 100 points in seven straight games.

Young scored 11 of his points in the first quarter as Philadelphia claimed 34-24 advantage. The 76ers extended the lead to as many as 15 before Chicago responded.

The Bulls put together a 14-0 that was capped by Luol Deng to make it 41-40 with just under five minutes left in the first half. The Sixers stopped the bleeding and held the lead at the half before falling apart in the third quarter.

"I told the guys to keep fighting. We were down by 15, we kept cutting it back and they went back up," Gooden said. "We got some stops and we go it going on the offense. We got some second chance points which got us back in the game."

Hughes scored 16 points off the bench for Chicago, which wrapped up a seven-game, 12-day road trip which began November 18 against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bulls went 3-4 on the trek, recording their first three road wins of the season.