CLEVELAND — Kent State advanced to the Mid-American Conference Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals for the second year in a row after defeating Northern Illinois, 63-60, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Wednesday evening.

Junior Bridget Dunn recorded a double-double with a career-high 15 rebounds and 14 points, knocking down four three-point field goals at critical moments throughout the game. In her MAC Tournament debut, freshman Janae Tyler scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and tied her career-high with three blocked shots in 18 minutes of action.

The All-MAC duo of redshirt senior Katie Shumate and junior Jenna Batsch added 14 points each.

The Golden Flashes (19-10) trailed 7-0 a little more than two minutes into the contest before knocking down six of their next nine shots to take the lead. The Huskies answered with a basket inside on the next possession to go ahead 16-15 at the end of the first quarter.

The second period featured seven lead changes with a pair of inside finishes over the defense by Tyler in the final 90 seconds giving Kent State a 28-27 lead at halftime.

After falling behind by one with 7:56 remaining in the third quarter, the Flashes put together a 7-0 run for their largest lead of the night. Dunn made a big three-pointer and scored after grabbing a missed free throw to help take a 47-43 lead into the fourth.

With the lead down to one and in the midst of a scoring drought of more than two minutes, Dunn made another three-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 59-55 with 2:02 to play. Kent State recorded back-to-back defensive stops and Batsch converted a layup to go ahead by six with just over a minute to play. A late three-point shot allowed NIU to make it a single-possession game.

The Flashes will play No. 2 seed Ball State in a MAC Tournament semifinal contest at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, March 15.

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