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The Milwaukee Bucks could’ve folded again.

Andrew Bogut had just fouled out with 4:11 left, Chris Bosh was on his way to a career night for the Raptors and the Bucks were clinging to the slimmest of leads.

“It was gut check time,” Milwaukee’s Charlie Bell said. “When [Bogut] went out of the game, it was time for other guys to step up. We could’ve easily laid down and said, ‘Oh man, we lost because Andrew fouled out.”‘

They didn’t.

The Bucks went on a 7-0 run just after Bogut fouled out and Milwaukee held on to beat Toronto 113-107 on Wednesday night, overcoming Bosh’s career-high 44 points.

“We learned a lot about ourselves,” Bell said.

Bogut had 27 points and 12 rebounds before picking up his sixth foul on the offensive end when Jarrett Jack slipped in behind him and drew a foul.

Moments later, Bosh hit two free throws to cut it to 103-102 before Milwaukee pulled away by pulling in offensive rebounds.

“A lot of hustle. We needed that. We weren’t shooting the ball that well from the perimeter,” Bogut said. “If we can get some cheap points, that’ll help us win games.”

Milwaukee, losers of five of the last seven, is 3-9 in games chose by three points or less.

It appeared this one would be that close, too, but by the time Bosh scored his career-best 44th point on a dunk with 37 seconds left, the game was no longer in doubt.

“It’s a small frustrating,” said Bosh, who can opt out of his contract at the end of the season. “You try as hard as you can, but you still come up small. It seems to be happening a lot this year, but I don’t know what else to do. I’m just going to keep playing.”

‘It’s about defence’

Jose Calderon’s three-pointer gave Toronto an 87-86 lead early in the fourth, but newly bought veteran forward Jerry Stackhouse answered with a trey — the 900th of his career — and Milwaukee led 95-89 while Bosh missed two shots and was called for charging into Bogut.

Bosh’s physical play got Bogut in distress, too, and the 7-footer committed two fouls in a 38-second span to end his night. Instead of a rally by the Raptors, they fell to 3-5 when Bosh scores 40 or more.

“It’s not about offence It’s about defence. We scored enough points. One-hundred some odd points is enough points. It’s about defense. You have to get stops,” said Bosh, who also had 12 rebounds. “A team that plays hard like they do, if you give them a second chance, you’re probably not going to win.”

And the Bucks took advantage.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored on a tip-in, Ersan Ilyasova converted a three-point play and Bell deflected a loose ball off a Toronto player and scored on the ensuing inbound play to give Milwaukee a 110-102 lead with 51 seconds left.

“It was just a huge win for us, especially off a tough road trip, going 1-5,” Bell said. “It just felt excellent to be home.”

That feeling won’t last long. The two teams meet again on Friday night in Toronto after the Raptors squandered an 11-point first-half lead in this one and Bosh’s huge night.

Stackhouse, signed Monday, played 17 minutes and finished with three points, five rebounds and four assists. The 15-year veteran probably felt a small ancient, too, on the defensive end. He was guarding Raptors rookie DeMar DeRozan, who was six-years-ancient when Stackhouse made his NBA debut in 1995.

“I felt excellent,” Stackhouse said. “I’m just going to try to ease my way into it. It was a excellent start and a excellent win.”

Andy McDonald scored 3:19 into overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.

McDonald scored unassisted, beating Carey Price with a wrist shot into the top left corner after St. Louis blew a 3-1 lead in the third period.

Scott Gomez tied it for the Canadiens with only 32.9 seconds remaining in regulation.

Benoit Pouliot scored his second goal of the game midway through the third as Montreal rallied to earn a point after falling behind 2-0 just 3:35 in.

David Perron and Paul Kariya scored 38 seconds apart in the first, and Alex Steen added St. Louis’s third goal late in the opening period to give the Blues the 3-1 lead.

More to come

Taylor Hall exhibited just why he is the mid-season favourite to become the first overall selection at the 2010 NHL entry draft.

The Windsor Spitfires speedster set up Ryan Spooner of Peterborough Petes for the game-winning, shorthanded goal with 8:05 remaining in the third period en route to Team Cherry’s 4-2 win against Team Orr in the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game on Wednesday.

Playing in front of his Spitfire fans in Windsor, Ont., Hall snatched a loose puck out of the air, sped down the ice for a two-on-one rush and passed to Spooner, who lifted a shot over Team Orr goalie Louis Domigue.

“I out-coached [Orr] again,” Cherry joked.

This was Hall’s seventh game since he returned from playing with Canada at the world junior tournament in Saskatoon two weeks ago.

“It’s been pretty tough for myself,” Hall said. “It’s been tough to get up for games, but I have to remind myself to go out there and have fun.”

Hall, Tyler Seguin and Cam Fowler each had a strong game.

They are the consensus top-three picks with the NHL draft five months away and it will depend on the team’s needs which player will be chosen first.

Hall is a left-winger, Seguin plays centre and Fowler patrols the blue-line with an offensive flare.

“Like [Cherry] said, this was the furthest thing from an all-star game,” Hall said. “There was a lot of intensity out there.”

Team Orr’s Nino Niederrater opened the scoring in the first period a goal from the slot before Emerson Etem tied the game in the second period.

Team Orr loved a one-goal advantage after Jeff Skinner scored early in the third period, but Jordan Weal tied the game 34 seconds later.

Louis-Marc Aubry added an empty-net goal for Team Cherry.

Skinner, who plays for the Kitchener Rangers, is the leading goal scorer in the OHL, with 35 goals in 44 games.

“Everyone is here to prove to the scouts that they deserve to be drafted higher than they are ranked right now,” he said.