CORALVILLE, Iowa (March 14, 2026) - Murray State sweetened its record-breaking season with yet another championship.
The top-seeded Racers scored early and often in cruising past Evansville 91-70 inside Xtream Arena on Sunday to claim their second straight title in the Credit Union1 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament and secure a second consecutive berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Halli Poock led the dash to the trophy with 33 points, spicing her performance with 6-for-10 3-point shooting, and she got plenty of help along the way. Haven Ford knocked down four 3s while scoring 18 points, Keslyn Secrist added 14 and Sharnecce Currie-Jelks recorded her nation-leading 26th double-double with 12 points and 16 rebounds.
All-Tournament Team
Tierney Kelsey, Indiana State
Camryn Runner, Evansville
Sharnecce Currie-Jelks, Murray State
Keslyn Secrist, Murray State
Halli Poock, Murray State - PATTY VIVERITO AWARD – (MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER)
Elite 18 -- Haven Ford, Murray State
It was another impressive tournament run for the Racers. They set a conference record by scoring 265 points in last year’s tourney and topped that mark this year by rolling up 268, including a record 105 in a quarterfinal win over Indiana State.
Murray State (31-3) broke the school record for victories earlier this season and will take a 15-game winning streak into the NCAAs after becoming the eighth team to repeat in the MVC tourney and the 25th to capture both the regular-season and tournament championships. The Racers’ 31 wins match the 1991-92 Missouri State NCAA Tournament Final Four team for the most by a Valley program.
Even with the disappointing end it was a remarkable tournament run for Evansville (10-25), which was the first 10-seed to reach the championship game and lost for the first time in three appearances in the finals. The three-game winning streak to get there was the program’s longest since the 2021-22 season and came after the Aces won only five league games during the regular season.
Mireia Mustaros led Evansville with 16 points, while Sydney Huber and Breaunna Ward each scored 15 points. Season scoring leader Camryn Runner finished with 12 for the Aces, who played gamely but, in their fourth game in as many days, simply didn’t have enough left to keep up with their high-powered opponent. Murray State shot 51.5 percent for the game and went 13-for-27 from distance.
Poock, the league’s Jackie Stiles Player of the Year, finished with 73 points and 14 assists in her three games this weekend and received the Patty Viverito Award as the tournament’s most outstanding player. She broke the school’s single-season scoring record in Saturday’s semifinal win over Northern Iowa and now has 761 points, lifting her past Drake’s Lorri Bauman into eighth place on the MVC list.
Currie-Jelks, Secrist and Runner joined Poock on the all-tournament team, along with Indiana State’s Tierney Kelsey, who landed on the team after a 46-point outburst in the quarterfinal game with Murray State.
Poock scored the game’s first points on a floater in the lane only 26 seconds in and went on to make 12-of-19 shots while tacking on five assists and a steal. It was the seventh 30-point game of the season for the 5-foot-6 junior, who leads the conference in scoring.
Evansville did lead in the game – for all of 11 seconds. Runner’s layup made it 4-3 Evansville, but Poock quickly put her team back in front by knocking down a 3 from the left corner, triggering a 13-0 run that got the Racers rolling. They led 21-10 after one quarter, then ran off the first seven points of the second quarter, stretching the lead to 28-10 and forcing Evansville Coach Robyn Scherr to call her second timeout of the half.
The Aces made a bit of a run, getting the lead down to 36-24 on Huber’s second 3-ball of the quarter. It was only a temporary reprieve. Poock buried two more 3s as the Racers finished the half on a 10-2 burst for a 46-27 lead at the break. When Poock and Secrist buried triples to start the second half, the Racers all but had the championship in their grasp. Evansville never got closer than 19 the rest of the way and Murray State twice led by as many as 27.
With her 16 boards Sunday, Currie-Jelks extended her school-record total for the season to 402, which ranks fourth on the MVC list. Runner wound up with 76 points in the tournament, which fits in at No. 7 on the conference list.
Murray State now awaits its assignment for the program’s third trip to the NCAAs, the Racers also having gone as the Ohio Valley Conference champions in 2008. Their 22 wins against conference opponents this season match Drake’s 2023-24 team for the most in league history.
Evansville, meanwhile, has a bright future after relying almost exclusively on freshmen and sophomores this season. The Aces’ three victories in this year’s tournament were their first in the event since 2017 and put a positive spin on the season’s end.