Bulls break Broncos after sub-par first half

In the first half, the women's basketball team scored 15 points and shot just 15.6 percent from the field.
But a poor start didn't result in Buffalo's fourth-straight loss.
The Bulls (6-15, 2-6 Mid-American Conference) turned things around in the second and beat the Broncos (5-16, 0-8 MAC), 50-46. The win marked Buffalo's first-ever win at Western Michigan after going 0-for-6 in previous attempts. It was Buffalo's first road conference victory of the season for the Bulls.
During the first half, the team seemed well on its way to another road loss at University Arena.
Luckily for the Bulls, the Broncos didn't shoot the ball well in the first stanza. WMU went 7-for-24 from the field and held an 18-15 lead heading into the locker room.
Head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald wasn't happy with the offensive production in the first half, but made key adjustments at halftime.
'We are a very capable scoring team and we just weren't scoring in the first half,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'With every shot we missed we seemed to get tighter and more tentative and that is what we talked about at halftime.'
Buffalo stayed close in the first half by going 5-for-6 from the free throw line and played solid defense against the Broncos.
After a 5-0 run by WMU to start the second half, the Bulls came alive and started their charge. With 16:28 left in the game, freshman guard Abby Dowd converted on a layup and started a string of nine-straight made baskets that gave Buffalo a 34-31 lead.
The two teams battled back and forth for position until junior forward Jessica Fortman converted on a three-point play that gave the Bulls a 45-40 lead. She delivered the final blow to the Broncos on a free throw that gave Buffalo its largest lead of the day at 48-41 with 28 seconds remaining.
Fortman was the high scorer for the Bulls in the game, finishing with 20 points to go along with six rebounds. Sophomore guard Brittany Hedderson contributed 10 points off the bench as well as two blocked shots.
Bulls' standout junior forward Kourtney Brown was quiet offensively, scoring only eight points, but she grabbed 10 rebounds in the game.
Hill-MacDonald was confident her team would break out of its first-half slump.
'We knew we were lucky to be down three with the way we shot [in the first half],' Hill McDonald said. 'We knew that if we ran that same offense and got those same shots that we would knock them down and be in good shape.'
The Bulls outscored the Broncos 35-28 in the second half to secure the win. They also dominated in the paint, outscoring Western Michigan 22-12 in the game.
Western Michigan got a solid contribution off the bench from forward Kemmy Dominique. She was the team's high scorer with 11 points. Broncos forward Ebony Cleary was a monster on the glass, bringing in 14 rebounds while chipping in seven points.
For the Broncos, the loss completed an 0-8 January. The team has lost its last nine games.
The Bulls hope to build on the win when they return home on Wednesday, Feb. 3 to battle the Eastern Michigan Eagles at 7 p.m.

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