The Windy City Bulls couldn’t capitalize on a 1st-quarter surge in a 127-126 loss to the College Park Skyhawks on Tuesday. Guard Mac McClung used an incredible first quarter to end with a game-leading 54 points to pair with 10 assists. Hawks guard RayJ Dennis countered with 15 assists while joining three other Skyhawks in hitting or exceeding the 20-point mark on the night.
McClung struck first for the Bulls with a wide-open drive to the hoop, which sparked another scoring barrage for the G League star. The 1st-year Bull would heave up 18 3-pointers, including a few heat checks in the first quarter, on his way to nine makes by game’s end. He would reach an astounding 26 points by the end of the first quarter, far ahead of his regular-season average of nine per game in the first. The Bulls used movement on both sides of the ball to keep the Skyhawks guessing, which limited their offense until they started surging back with a number of fastbreak makes.
The Skyhawks began a comeback run as they hit the Bulls’ Achilles’ heel with fastbreak points and slams in the paint. The Hawks would end with 21 points off fastbreaks and 78 paint points, which followed up another 78-point paint performance by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in a Sunday Bulls loss. A back-and-forth battle from the 3-point and free throw lines would keep things in a stalemate before the halftime horn, but the Skyhawks would ultimately win out as they continued to hammer the Bulls with close-range strikes.
While they’ve shown some sparks of life with five wins since the start of February, a sudden mid-season slide put the Skyhawks far out of reach of matching their 17-17 record from their previous campaign. They still left the night with three wins in their last five matchups, including a key win over Raptors 905, but have failed to hold their opponents to below 120 points in all but one game since Feb. 2 on their way to a 9-20 regular-season record. The Hawks have yet to match their defense with their up-and-down nights on offense, which have peaked with 140 points or more on three occasions and plummeted to as low as 98 points in a loss to the Wisconsin Herd.
The Bulls will move on to face the Valley Suns, who rank just behind the Oklahoma City Blue for 13th in the Western Conference. Though the Windy City has never faced the Suns since their founding in 2024, the Bulls have gone 5-3 against Western opponents since the Tip-Off tournament, while the Suns are 3-4 against their cross-conference foes this season. They last fell in a 6-point loss to the Herd, who are in a 3-way tie with the Skyhawks and Grand Rapids Gold for last place in the Eastern Conference.
The Bulls will tip off against the Suns at 7 p.m. CDT on Thursday in NOW Arena.
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