Cleveland, Ohio – Central Michigan avoided a first-round upset in defeating Akron, 67-59, as part of the Mid-American Conference women’s basketball tournament Wednesday night.

Five players reached double figures for Central Michigan (18-13), led by Brandie Baker’s 16 points. Kaihla Szunko added 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds, while Britni Houghton turned in her 28th double-digit performance of the season.

Trailing 48-45, Ayla Gazzardo (10 points) scored eight of the Zips next 10 points to give Akron a 55-49 lead. But CMU’s pressure defense forced UA turn the ball over nine times down the stretch amidst an 18-4 run to end the game. Two key free throws by Baker with 1:42 left put the Chippewas ahead to stay.

A Baumgartner follow of an Amber Witt miss trimmed the CMU lead to 40-33 as time expired at the end of the first half. Baumgartner, who finished with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds, spurred the Zips out of the locker room, a 12-4 run giving Akron its first lead, 45-44, since the 18:23 mark of the first half.

Kara Murphy, the MAC’s leading scorer, led Akron (11-19) in scoring for the 24th time this season and the 35th time in her career. Her 32 points led all scorers, coming on 9-of-18 shooting from the field and 11-of-17 from the charity stripe.

Murphy--who became the youngest player in Akron history to surpass 1,000 points and set a school record for most tournament points in a game--scored 18 of UA’s first 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting, a stretch that included her team’s first 13 points of the game.

The Zips entered as the league’s top defender against 3-pointers, but that didn’t matter to the Chippewas, as CMU would connect on 38.9 percent (7-of-18) of its triples during the first 20 minutes. However, that trend changed drastically after the intermission as CMU would be held without a 3-pointer in the second half.

As the top team in the league in turnover margin, CMU forced Akron into 23 turnovers, 11 of those in the first half. The Chippewas took advantage of the miscues, turning them into 22 points.

Central Michigan capitalized on early 7-of-15 shooting from 3-point range to take a 32-20 lead with five minutes left before intermission. The Zips would run off seven unanswered points to trim the lead to five, but that would be as close as they would get until the second half.

An early 3-point play by Murphy put the Zips up 4-2, but the Chippewas would run off eight straight points to take a six-point lead. Later in the half, consecutive triples by Baker and Kendra Holman gave the West No. 4 seed a nine-point advantage at 24-15.

Central Michigan advances to take on East No. 1 seed Bowling Green in a quarterfinal match-up at Quicken Loans Arena on Friday. Tip time is slated for 11 a.m. EST.