ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The Missouri State Bears jumped out to a 15-2 lead on Saturday night in the semifinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and withstood a furious late-game rally from the Indiana State Sycamores to advance to the tournament championship game on Sunday.

With the loss, the Sycamores end their season with an even 16-16 record under first-year head coach Teri Moren, the most wins in ISU history for a rookie head coach.

Neither side was able to get going quickly on the offensive end, as both ISU and MSU combined to miss their first seven shots before MSU's Christiana Shorter knocked down a jumper with 17:01 on the clock to get the Bears on the scoreboard. MSU would go on to score the game's first eight points, before junior Deja Mattox ended the MSU run with a jumper in the paint at the 15:42 mark.

The Bears dominated the opening eight minutes of the contest, outscoring the Sycamores 27-7 up until 11:33 remained in the first half.

Missouri State took a 15-point lead into the locker room, at 43-28. Sophomore Taylor Whitley led ISU with nine points and four assists in the first half, while junior Shannon Thomas added six points and seven rebounds. MSU's Casey Garrison led all scorers with 10 first-half points.

The Sycamores were not able to gain any substantial ground for much of the second half, as the Bears were able to match Indiana State's improved play possession by possession.

Indiana State began their late-game run with just under eight minutes remaining in the game when Whitley knocked down a 3-pointer with 7:46 to go to cut MSU's lead to 67-52. Whitley's three began a 16-6 run for the Sycamores to get Indiana State within eight, at 73-65, with 3:57 to go on a trey from senior Kelsie Cooley.

As a team, the Sycamores knocked down five 3-pointers over the game's final five minutes, but ISU could only get as close as five points when freshman Anna Munn hit a triple with 29 seconds remaining in the game.

For the game, Whitley led all scorers with a career-high 23 points, going 7-for-11 from the field and 7-for-10 from the free-throw line. For the tournament, Whitley scored 66 points in ISU's three games (22.0 per game) while dishing out 22 assists (7.3 per game) and turning the ball over just five times in leading Indiana State to their best tournament finish since the team made it to the championship game back in 2005-06.

Thomas posted her second double-double of the tournament, going for 11 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks. Junior Brittany Schoen knocked down five 3-pointers on Saturday, en route to 16 points while setting the Indiana State single-season record for triples with 87 during the 2010-11 campaign. Cooley and Munn joined the group of Sycamores in double figures, both scoring 11 points.

With the win, Missouri State advances to the State Farm MVC Tournament Championship game on Sunday against top-seeded Northern Iowa.