KALAMAZOO, Mich.- The Western Michigan women's basketball team rallied from an early 15-point deficit to defeat Northern Illinois Saturday at University Arena, 50-45.

With the outcomes of the rest of the games across the conference, WMU will be the No. 5 seed in the Mid-American Conference Tournament and hosts No. 12 Bowling Green Monday, March 9 in a first round game at 5:30 p.m. A WMU men's first round tournament game will follow.

Western Michigan concludes the regular season tied for second in the MAC West Division, its highest since finish since 2006, and in a three-way tie for fourth place overall in the conference with Buffalo and Eastern Michigan. All three teams ended league play with an 18-11 overall and 11-7 MAC record. UB took the No. 4 tournament seed over WMU with tiebreaker procedures and the Broncos bumped the Eagles down to the No. 6 seed.

After Western Michigan fell behind Northern Illinois 17-2 over the first seven minutes of the first half Saturday the Broncos pinned their ears back and outscored the Huskies 32-6 over the next 17 minutes of the game. By halftime, Western Michigan had clawed its way back to tie the score at 23-23. The Broncos kept their foot on the gas in the second half, rattling off an 11-0 run to take a 34-23 lead with 16:16 remaining.

The Huskies inched within five a handful of times throughout the final 15 minutes and got within three points with 1:02 left to play. Bronco sophomore Meredith Shipman hit a pair of free throws to close out the five-point victory.

Western Michigan's offense was spread amongst the team, as nine of the 10 players that saw the floor scored in the game. Junior Miracle Woods was the only player to reach double digits, totaling 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. The two blocks gave her 100 for her career as she became just the fifth Bronco ever to reach the century milestone for career blocks.

Shipman was WMU's next highest scorer, recording nine off the bench. In addition to her clutch free throws late, she hit a big three-pointer in the first half as WMU built momentum in the comeback.

Senior A.J. Johnson had eight points, four assists, a steal and tied with senior Jazmine Windham for a team-high seven rebounds. Windham scored three points in the game, knocking down a three-pointer that gave her 100 triples for her career.

Western Michigan had just nine turnovers in the game and only two in the first half. The team stepped up its shooting percentage from 32.1 in the first half to 45.0 percent in the second.

Northern Illinois was led by Kelly Smith, Amanda Corral and Ally Lehman with 12, 11 and 10 points respectively. Smith also had a game-high eight rebounds.

WMU honored its seniors after the game for Senior Day, recognizing Courtney Haley (student coach), Marquisha Harris, Johnson, Michelle O'Brien and Windham, as well as student managers Bryan Aplin and Connor Kirkpatrick.

If Western Michigan and Northern Illinois both win their first round games on Monday (No. 8 NIU hosts No. 9 Central Michigan), the two could meet again in the second round of the MAC Tournament in Cleveland on March 11 at noon.