Bulls look for strong finish to season

The road to the Mid-American Conference Tournament is reaching its conclusion and the women's basketball team is hoping to recreate the magic it experienced just a season ago.
Before the Bulls (7-19, 3-10 MAC) get a chance to play at Quicken Loans Arena, they first have to close out the regular season. Up next are the Bowling Green Falcons (21-6, 11-2 MAC) at Alumni Arena on Wednesday. The Falcons are the best team in the MAC this season and dominated the Bulls in their first meeting this year, 78-60.
Head coach Linda Hill-MacDonald knows how good of a team Bowling Green is, but has confidence in her squad. She felt the performance of her team in the first half of the first meeting needs to happen for the entire contest this time around.
'We played [Bowling Green] very tough, particularly in the first half,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'Although they won that game. they had to work hard to do it. It's our home court and we hope to take what we've learned the first time we played them and correct some of the things we could have done better for the entire 40 minutes.'
Ringing through the halls of Alumni Arena are the memories of last season, when the Bulls surprised everyone by making it to the semi-finals of the MAC tournament before falling to Ball State, the eventual winner.
Recapturing that drive and focus is essential for the Bulls down the stretch and Hill-MacDonald welcomes the change; however, she expected it sooner.
'We certainly talk about the way we finished last season,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'Each game presents a new opportunity and players have to come into each game with that mindset. We don't want to wait until the MAC tournament to finally play the way we're capable of playing.'
The three games left on the schedule for the Bulls will gauge how far the team has come this season. Even though they have played poorly at times, they have a lot of talent and need to finish on a high note to have success in Cleveland.
Hill-MacDonald attributes the Bulls' struggles to inconsistent play and the inability to put forth a 40-minute effort as a team.
'If we could play 40 minutes like we play three-quarters of the game, that would have made a difference in a lot [of our losses],' Hill-MacDonald said. 'That's the biggest problem – the lack of consistency in our performance.'
An essential component to the Bulls' success is contributions across the board.
The Bulls got beat down by the Miami RedHawks on Saturday afternoon, 67-52, in part because of the lack of support for junior forward Kourtney Brown. She scored 20 points in the game and grabbed 10 rebounds for her 15th double-double this season.
The play of junior forward Jessica Fortman was solid as she scored nine points and grabbed nine boards, but she shot 3-for-14 from the field.
Hill-MacDonald knows that to end their current three-game losing streak, the Bulls will have to show up on the defensive end against the Falcons.
'We need to get out and defend,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'We know we have to defend the perimeter, as they have some great shooters.'
At the end of the day, this is still a very young team. The Bulls have five freshmen and four sophomores and the team is still learning how to win.
'We would have liked to see some lessons learned a bit sooner,' Hill-MacDonald said. 'But I think what we've been through this year and the playing time some of our young players have received has great potential to pay great dividends for us next year.'
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. against the Falcons.

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