Blakeney scores 35, but Windy City drops opener

LSU product Antonio Blakeney had a terrific game for the Windy City Bulls Saturday night in the season opener against the Westchester Knicks.

Blakeney scored a game high 35 points, but it wasn't enough to stop Westchester from coming away with a 114-102 win at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates.

The game turned at the beginning of the second half when the Knicks scored the first 12 points, and the Bulls couldn't recover

"We came out flat in the second half," said Blakeney. "I missed a layup, and we missed a couple of open shots."

Despite his stellar performance, one which included 7 rebounds, Blakeney wasn't satisfied.

"Not good enough," he said when asked to assess his play, "because we lost."

Center Luke Cornet, standing tall at 7-1, put Westchester up 34-32 at the first quarter buzzer.

The Bulls had their biggest lead of the game at 45-41 after a Blakeney dunk on a runout, but the Knicks broke away midway through the second, holding a lead as big a 9 points.

Blakeney helped keep Windy City in the game with 19 first half points, but game got away from the Bulls from the get go in the second half.

Westchester lead only 63-58 the break, but went on the 12 point run to go up by 17.

The Bulls were finally able to cut the lead to below double digits when Tyler Harris scored 7 straight points in the 4th quarter, bringing Windy City to within 97-88.

Then the Knicks tallied the next 9 to end any hope of a Bulls rally, even though Windy City was able to narrow the gap late.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Trey Burke each scored 21 for the Knicks.

Diamond Stone finished with 13 points for the Bulls to go along with 9 rebounds, while Harris and Jarell Eddie each scored 13.

"We stayed with them in the first half," said Eddie. "In the second half they made some tough shots."