CORALVILLE, Iowa (March 14, 2026) - The Credit Union 1 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament will end with a most unlikely participant in the championship game.
 
Tenth-seeded Evansville continued a remarkable run through the tournament by knocking off third-seeded Illinois State 75-70 in overtime Saturday at Xtream Arena for its third victory in as many days. The Aces (10-24) will try to make it four in a row against their biggest challenge yet, meeting top-seeded and defending champion Murray State (30-3) for the title at 1 p.m. Sunday.
 
Murray State, which swept the two regular-season games with the Aces by margins of 10 and 19 points, advanced with a 72-59 victory over fourth-seeded Northern Iowa.
 
It’s the first time a No. 10 seed has reached the championship game. The 10 seeds have only six wins in the history of the MVC tournament and Evansville has half of them. And the Aces might have a little history on their side. They advanced to the title game twice before, in 1999 and 2009, and won it both times, the latter by winning four games in four days as the tournament’s No. 9 seed.
 
Sophomore Camryn Runner led Evansville with 24 points and made plays whenever the Aces needed them. She hit 10 of her 12 free throws, knocked down two 3-pointers and tacked on five assists and six rebounds.
 
Many others contributed to the upset in the tournament’s 18^th overtime game. Coach Robyn Scherr used nine players and eight of them scored. Georgia Cox backed Runner with 11 points, Breaunna Ward and Mireia Mustaros each scored eight and Kylee Norkus added seven to go with six rebounds and three steals.


Doneelah Washington delivered a big game for Illinois State (20-13) with 24 points and seven rebounds. Addison Martin added 16 points and nine rebounds and Trista Fayta scored 10 while tacking on seven rebounds and three assists. Freshman Jaeden Pratt made a big contribution with two 3-pointers and eight points, plus five rebounds.
 
The Redbirds were hurt when Pratt and Fayta fouled out in overtime and they failed to capitalize on their free throw opportunities, going just 18-of-31 (.581) at the line. But they still battled back from a six-point deficit in the final 3 minutes of regulation to force overtime.
 
The game matched two youthful teams that rely heavily on freshmen and sophomores and they got after defensively as the lead seesawed throughout.
 
Evansville led 58-52 with 2:45 left after an eight-point run and seemed to be in control. Fayta’s free throw and a Pratt triple cut the lead to 58-56 and another Fayta free throw drew the Redbirds to within a point. Runner’s two foul shots made it 60-57 with 11.2 seconds left, but Washington buried a 3 to tie it with 7.8 seconds to go. Runner then got the ball to Bella Finnegan in the left corner, but her three-ball was off the mark and the Aces had to go another five minutes to earn their shot at the title.
 
After the game’s 10^th lead change, Norkus dropped in a pair of foul shots to put the Aces ahead to stay at 65-64 with 3:04 to play. Finnegan got another crack from beyond the arc a little more than 30 seconds later and this time she nailed it, stretching the lead to 68-64. Two Runner free throws hiked the lead to six – the largest of the game by either team -- and Evansville wrapped it up with five more free throws – three by Runner and a final two by Norkus.
 
Evansville’s current three-game winning streak is the longest by an Aces team since the 2021-22 season and the longest against three NCAA Division I opponents since the 2020-21 season.
 
Runner became the school’s single-season scoring leader, raising her total to 625, breaking the old record of 602 held by Sara Dickey. She has scored 64 points in her three MVC tourney games, which ties her for 12th on the league’s all-time list.