Cleveland, OH -- (Sports Network) - Jeremiah Wood scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds to help third-seeded Akron to a relatively smooth 81-60 victory over sixth-seeded Central Michigan in the quarterfinals of the Mid- American Conference Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena.

Nate Linhart added 16 points and six boards, while Brett McKnight scored 12 for the Zips (22-9), who advanced to take on second-seeded Western Michigan in the semifinals Friday. WMU was a 71-60 winner over Eastern Michigan in its quarterfinal matchup earlier Thursday afternoon.

Chris Kellermann led Central Michigan (14-17) with 14 points and nine rebounds, but the Chippewas shot just 34.5 percent from the floor and allowed the Zips to hit 59 percent of their three-point attempts. Giordan Watson was the only other CMU player in double figures, with 11 points.

CMU led for most of the opening 20 minutes before the Zips used a 12-3 run, capped by Steve McNees' three-pointer, to go up 32-27 with less than a minute to go in the first half. Linhart then hit a fallaway jumper in the waning seconds to send Akron into the break holding a 34-29 advantage.

Wood hit a three about 2 1/2 minutes into the second half to push the Akron lead to 39-31, and moments later McKnight scored in the lane for the Zips' first double-digit advantage.

The lead was 56-38 with about 10 minutes to go after Nick Dials drained a deep three, and the Zips cruised down the stretch, extending the margin to as many as 24 along the way.