Creighton cruised to a 76-59 win over Wichita State in the semifinals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball tournament at The Family Arena Saturday night.

The Bluejays shot better than 50 percent from the field for the third time this year against the Shockers, while advancing to their second straight MVC Tournament championship game. Sam Schuett led the team with 17 points, as the Bluejays captured their third straight 20-win season and move to 20-9.

Creighton scored the first eight points of the game and owned a double-digit lead at 15-5, 6:23 into the game. The Jays would never relinquish their double-figure lead in advancing to their sixth MVC Tournament title game and third in the last four years. The Jays jumped up 19-5 and led by as many as 18 in the first half, before heading to the break up 44-30.

The Bluejays shot 61.5 percent from the field in the first half, making 16-of-26 shots from the field. The Jays committed just three turnovers in the opening half and out-scored WSU 22-10 in the paint in the first 20 minutes.

Wichita State (17-14) scored the first four points after halftime to get within 10, but would get no closer in the contest. The Jays answered with an 11-3 run to pull away and put the game out of reach. The Jays led by as many as 22 in the game, 76-54 with just over a minute to play.

Nine of the 10 Bluejays scored in the game, led by Schuett’s 17. The junior, who did not play in last year’s tourney because of her redshirt season, hit 6-of-8 shots from the floor and 3-of-5 from long range. Schuett added seven rebounds and a game-high four assists.

Kellie Nelson chipped in 14 points, 10 in the first half, and a team-best eight rebounds. Chevelle Herring scored all 11 of her points in the first half. Kelsey Woodard went 3-for-3 from three-point range for her nine points and Kelsey Crites contributed nine points and four boards off the bench.

Megan Neuvirth, playing in her school-record 127th career game, finished with seven points and four rebounds. She now has 912 career rebounds to rank 10th in MVC history and only 12 shy of Pam Gradoville’s school record (924).

Haleigh Lankster led all players with 23 points, making 9-of-12 shots for the Shockers.

Creighton out-rebounded WSU 39-28 in the game and out-scored the Shockers 34-22 in the paint. CU shot 53.1 percent (26-49) from the floor and 35.3 percent (6-17) from three-point range. CU was a lowly 18-of-32 (.563) at the free-throw line in the win.

The Bluejays will take on No. 5 seed Northern Iowa (16-15) in the championship game on Sunday at 2:35 p.m. UNI upset top-seeded Illinois State 61-59 in the first semifinal game on Saturday.

The third ranked Nebraska women’s basketball team suffered their first loss of the season in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City losing to #11 Texas A & M 80-70.

NU had no answer for Danielle Adams who scored 22 points in 23 minutes on 10 of 15 shooting. NU led 15-14 with just over 13 minutes to play in the first half, when A & M went on an 10-0 run to go up 24-15 in about a four minute span.

Dominque Kelly’s layup ended the run, A & M would keep no less than a seven point lead the rest of the half. In the second half, down 39-28 at the break, NU saw their deficit grow to 15 with just over 11 minutes to play with the score 55-40.

The key to the game was All-America candidate Kelsey Griffin got into foul trouble. She had three at half and picked up her fourth early in the 2nd. Griffin finished with just 15 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes.

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Number four seed Bellevue continues their run in the NAIA Division II Tournament with a thrilling 70-69 win over number the 13 Cedarville Yellow Jackets out of Ohio. The Bruins now move on for the third straight time to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

This was a tightly contested contest from the opening tip. The Bruins would open up a 6-2 lead, only to see that disappear after the Yellow Jackets would go on an 11-4 run. The Bruins would not give up, as they would tie the score at 19 thanks to three pointers from Ron King and Jace Fredenberg.

The Bruins would go up by 10 later in the first half, but would see that lead cut to five as they went into the locker room leading 39-34 at halftime.

In the second half, there would be no quit in either team. The Bruins would score first to open the lead back up to seven points. But here come the Yellow Jackets as they would go on another run. This time, it would be a 15-2 one that would put them up 49-43.

Bellevue would answer the bell and would eventually tie the game at 54. With about eight minutes to play, the teams would continue to go back and forth, and the score would once again be tied, this time at 61.

The Bruins would then score the next seven points and the game seemed to be going away from the Yellow Jackets. But Cedarville would pull within one point with just one minute left on the clock.

Bellevue would then miss a three point shot, giving the ball back to Cedarville with less than 10 seconds left in the game. The Yellow Jackets would then drive down, but their last shot would fall short giving the Bruins the 70-69 win.

Ron King would lead the Bruins in scoring with 15 points. Antoine Dade had 14 while Avery Tyler put in 13. The Bruins have now won 24 of their last 25 games and will take on number five seed Indiana Southeast this afternoon. That game will tip off at 3:00.

Maybe a bit of nerves or a little bit of rustiness early on for the third ranked Nebraska women. Despite missing 18 three point attempt and a feisty Kansas State team in the first half, the Huskers came away with a 63-46 win in their first game of the Big 12 tournament here in Kansas City.

Kelsey Griffin scored 16 of her 24 points in the first nine minutes of the second half. Cory Montgomery scored 13 points and Dominique Kelley added 11 for Nebraska, which plays either Texas or Texas A&M in a Saturday semifinal.

K-State held the Huskers to 33% shooting in the first half and trailed 27-26 at the break, but Griffin took over scoring nine points during an 11-5 run and then later a 13-2 run finished off the Wildcats.

The Husker play again on Saturday at noon.

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A 17 year old Omaha teen is at the Douglas County Youth Center after being arrested by police Wednesday evening. Officers drove by two teens in north Omaha and noticed something unusual. Officers stopped to talk to the two boys and that is when they discovered that one had a short shotgun stuffed down his pant leg. Police also found marijuana on the boy.

Are you ready to spring forward Sunday morning? Once again, it is time to change the clocks to Daylight Savings Time and the Nebraska State Fire Marshall’s Office also wants to remind you that it is also time to change the battery in your home smoke detector. Ray Nance is the office’s Fire Prevention Deputy and says statistics from the National Fire Protection Association shows about 31-percent of homes still do not have working smoke detectors.

Nance says it is also a good time to think back and remember when you purchased your smoke detector. They do not last forever. There is about a 20-percent failure rate once the smoke detector hits 10 years of age and once they hit 15-years, that failure rate jumps to 50-percent.

Nance says when you take your detector down to change the battery this weekend, it is also a good time to clean the system itself and make sure it is free of all dust and/or dirt. That can inhibit the ability of the alarm to receive what it needs to detect smoke and could also cause false alarms.

Many people do not have the correct number of smoke alarms in their home. Nance says one should be placed outside each sleeping area on each level of the home. It is also advised if you sleep with the bedroom door closed to have a smoke detector inside that specific room.

Many fire departments in Nebraska will provide free smoke detectors and will install them for you at no charge. Some also provide free battery exchange service.

Daylight Savings Time goes into effect Sunday at 2 am.

The Better Business Bureau is warning Nebraskans to use caution when doing business with door-to-door magazine salespersons. BBB’s Jim Hegarty says there have been a number of complaints from an Omaha based company “All Can Succeed”.

Customers have purchased magazines but they have not been delivered as promised. Customers are also having a very difficult time in canceling their order. Hegarty says the door-to-door sales person is usually a college-aged person who gives potential customers a sob story on how they are trying to earn money to pay their way through college. He adds many times these younger people are not even in college.

The BBB has received complaints about “All Can Succeed” from customers in California and Georgia as well but regarding the industry as a whole, they have received complaints from customers in 48 states.

Hegarty says many customers never get the magazines they have paid for and the sellers provide false addresses that make it impossible to get a refund.

Weather teams and emergency management officials continue to watch water levels along the Elkhorn and Platte Rivers in Nebraska. Becky Kern with the National Weather Service in Valley says for right now, things are fairly calm along the Platte. The Elkhorn River is still causing some problems near West Point.

Kern says the biggest problem right now is the Nishnabotna River in Iowa. That will have an impact on several Nebraska communities. A flood warning is in effect for an area near Hamburg, Iowa. That water is dumping into the Missouri River which is pushing Brownville and Rulo areas above flood state.