The Missouri St. Lady Bears had to erase an eight-point deficit to beat Creighton 70-63 at the Hammons Student Center on Thursday. Kari Koch and Sarah Klaassen led the Lady Bears with 20 points apiece and Kayli Combs added 12.
The Lady Bears trailed the Bluejays 27-26 at the half and the two teams went back and forth early on in the second half. It was tied 37-37, when CU scored eight-straight points to take a 45-37 advantage. But MSU battled back and was able to take the lead with 4:16 to go, when Koch made a bucket to break a 52-52 tie. She was fouled on the play and made the free throw. A technical foul from the Creighton bench allowed Koch to take and make two more free throws to push the lead to five points. Koch was 9-for-9 from the line on Thursday. As a team, the Lady Bears were 24-of-29 from the charity stripe.
Creighton tied the game at 57-57, but never retook the lead.
With the win, MSU improved to 10-9 on the season and 4-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Creighton, which has lost six straight Valley games, is now 6-13 and 4-6.
