Creighton was the pre-season favorite to win the Valley, and MSU has now played two of its best games of the season against the Jays. In January, they won 82-67 in Omaha, one of the toughest venues in the league, and on Friday they won 70-64 in a game that was never separated by more than four points until the final score.

Moreover, for a young MSU team that's stumbled along the way, a sweep over the pre-season league favorite shows the Lady Bears are definitely maturing. The way they handled a nip-and-tuck, down-to-the-wire finish on Friday was a great example of just how far they've come.

On top of all that, it moved MSU into a second place tie with Creighton. That's even more important when you consider a loss would have dropped the Lady Bears into fourth place. So you can see it was a big win in many ways.

Creighton jumped out to a quick lead but by the half led by only 32-30. Things stayed close throughout the second half with 8 ties and 18 lead changes.

Down the stretch, it was freshman forward Christiana Shorter who came up with the big plays as her rebound bucket with just over two minutes left put the Lady Bears ahead 59-56. Wth 1:26 remaining, Shorter's bucket and foul for a three-point play put MSU ahead 64-60.

From there, the Lady Bears went on to a 70-64 final, improving their record to 15-6 overall and 7-3 in conference play.

The only problem is the Missouri State women don't have long to celebrate. They play again on Sunday afternoon at 2 at home against Drake. Just eight games remain now before the league tournament on March 11.