CLEVELAND, Ohio- Eighth-seed Western Michigan defeated top seed Central Michigan to advance to Friday's semifinals with a 67-63 win in the Mid-American Conference quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 8 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Junior Najee Smith hit a three-pointer with 11.4 seconds left to give the Broncos their first lead of the game, 65-63, and senior Meredith Shipman converted two free throws with 5.4 seconds for the 67-63 final.

Sophomore guard Deja Wimby led Western Michigan with 17 points, seven assists and four rebounds. Sophomore Breanna Mobley had 14 points and six rebounds while Smith scored 12 points on four 3-pointers. Redshirt junior Marley Hill added 10 points.

The Broncos improved their record to 19-12 on the season and move onto the semifinal round for the first time since 2003 - WMU's last MAC Tournament championship.

Western Michigan had to overcome a lackluster start against their rival Central Michigan, as the Broncos fell behind 20-6 in the first quarter and trailed by nine at the half, 33-24. Western Michigan's defense began to pick up in the second half and the momentum carried over to the offensive end. The Broncos outscored Central Michigan 20-17 in the third quarter and 23-13 in the fourth.

With 1:20 left to play, Western Michigan still faced a six-point deficit. Smith knocked down a three with just over a minute remaining and then the Bronco defense forced the Chippewas to turn the ball over on a shot clock violation. Mobley converted a layup to pull WMU within one, 63-62, with 21.8 remaining. Both teams called a timeout and Central Michigan had the inbounds in front of their bench. Wimby was tight on defense and CMU's Presley Hudson was whistled for stepping out of bounds, again giving the ball back to the Broncos. WMU called another timeout and Smith stepped up to hit the game-winning shot from just left of the top of the arc.

"It's been a long while since I can sit up here and say I felt like our defense finally won us a game, and without question we were getting stops at critical times down the stretch in the third and fourth quarter," WMU head coach Shane Clipfell said.

"We just said in our locker room that the game ball really goes to Emma VanZanten and Meredith Miller and Najee Smith. Those three kids changed the momentum defensively off the bench in the beginning in the first quarter and they really swung the pendulum our way.

"As far as Naj's shot it was the third option on the play we drew up. We were running what we call screening game, and we didn't think they would help off Naj after she hit the first one, so we ran the same thing again."

"It definitely was a rhythm shot," Smith said. "I got my feet set.  It's easy to make that shot when you have a bench full of people, yelling shoot it, you got it, you got it."

Western Michigan didn't allow Central Michigan to score in the final two minutes and held the Chippewas to 3-for-11 from the floor in the fourth quarter. After shooting just 27 percent in the first half, WMU hit 53.7 percent and went 5-for-7 from three in the second half.

Reyna Frost scored 18 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to lead CMU, while Cassie Breen and Tinara Moore added 13 points apiece. The Chippewas out-rebounded the Broncos 42-31, however committed eight more turnovers (18-10).

Central Michigan had swept Western Michigan in the two regular season meetings this season and defeated the Broncos by 21 (94-73) a week ago in Mount Pleasant.

With the victory, the Broncos will advance to face No. 4 Northern Illinois Friday in the semifinals at 11 a.m. NIU rallied from a 17-point deficit to defeat No. 5 seed Ohio, 72-71 in the second quarterfinal matchup. Central Michigan concludes the season with a 23-8 overall record.