Obama wins - hoops, that is - with help from Scottie Pippen

With a little help from Scottie Pippen, former star of President Obama's beloved Chicago Bulls, Mr. Obama brought home at least one victory Tuesday before voting had even ended.

The president won his traditional Election Day basketball game by "like 20," former Illinois state treasurer and 2010 Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias told reporters after the game, with a score of "like 102, 105, 108 or so to 80-something." Giannoulias - a friend of the president - had written on Twitter earlier in the day that Pippen and Randy Brown, another former Bull, were at the pickup game at the Attack Athletics facility in Chicago.

"Okay, good news: Pippen and B.O. are both on my team! Reggie, Sec Duncan- here we come..." Giannoulias wrote, referring to Mr. Obama's personal aide and college basketball standout Reggie Love, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Other players on the roster included Mike Ramos and Marty Nesbitt, personal friends of the president.

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Basketball has been the president's Election Day release - and superstition - since Hillary Clinton took the 2008 New Hampshire primary, a loss he jokingly blames on the fact that he had not played basketball that day.

Giannoulias said the two five-player teams played four 12-minute quarters, with referees on hand to call fouls. He commented that the president "played very well," but would not specify how many points he scored.

"It was a lot of fun," he said. "We won. I scored more points than Scottie Pippen, which was my dream come true." Giannoulias said he scored 32, and Pippen 21.

For whatever reason, it's not the first time Pippen's name has come up in campaign chatter: He was featured in a debate joke in last week's election-themed episode of "30 Rock."