The difference between the Creighton women’s basketball team that was stumbling around two weeks ago and the one that begins play Friday in the Missouri Valley tournament can be summed up in one word.

Confidence.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a couple of months now,’’ forward Megan Neuvirth said. “We’re ready for this, and we know what we can do. It’s just a matter of going out and proving it now.

“We’re playing a whole different game now. We’re a lot more confident right now, and confidence goes so far in women’s athletics. I think when you take girls’ dynamics, when they get their confidence down, it’s hard to get it back up. Our confidence is high right now, and we’re motivated.’’

Creighton will take a three-game winning streak into Friday’s 6:05 p.m. quarterfinal game at the Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo. The second-seeded Bluejays will face the winner of Thursday’s Drake-Evansville play-in game.

Creighton is 18-9, with three of the losses coming in February. The Bluejays started the month going 3-3 but hadn’t played well even in the wins.

They ended February with a road win at Drake, then came home to post victories last week over Valley regular-season champion Illinois State and Indiana State to finish 13-5 in league play and claim the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

“We have a little bit more of a positive swagger about us now,’’ senior guard Chevelle Herring said. “That’s always good. Confidence is never a bad thing.’’

Herring, Neuvirth and Creighton’s two other seniors, Katie Frank and Kelsey Crites, are taking their last shot at a prize that has fallen just out of their reach in two of the past three seasons. The winner of the tournament claims the Valley’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

The Bluejay lost to Drake in overtime in the 2007 championship game. Last season, Creighton again reached the title game, only to fall to Evansville on a buzzer-beating shot.

“I haven’t brought that up to the team, and I don’t intend to,’’ Creighton coach Jim Flanery said. “I think our kids know we’ve been really close, and a break or two here or there and we could have won two of them. At the same time, you could have a break going the other way and you’re not even in that position.

“I think we know we’re going to be in grind-it-out games in the tournament, and we have to use our experience in those instances.’’

Creighton swept the regular-season series against both Drake and Evansville. The winner of Friday’s game advances to a Saturday semifinal against Missouri State or Wichita State. The Bluejays also swept Wichita State but lost both games to the Lady Bears.

If Creighton reaches the final against top-seeded Illinois State, the Bluejays would face a team they defeated twice during the regular season. They routed the Redbirds 69-44 on Jan. 2, then stopped Illinois State’s 15-game winning streak with a 60-57 victory on March 4.

Flanery told his players before the second meeting with the Redbirds that it was potentially the biggest game of the season.

“I just felt it could really help us from a confidence standpoint,’’ Flanery said. “I was asked on the league teleconference if I thought Illinois State was the team to beat. I replied that I thought maybe they were asking the wrong guy.

“Maybe the other eight coaches would say that, but I would like to think that if we’re fortunate enough to be in the final against Illinois State that our players would think that we’re just as much the team to beat. We have to get there, but beating them in the last three games is definitely more of a shot in the arm than beating someone else.’’

Herring and Neuvirth agree.

“We know they’re such a great team that it really doesn’t matter if we’ve won five of the last six,’’ said Neuvirth, referring to Creighton’s recent record against against the Redbirds. “We know in that seventh game, they’re going to come out ready to fire.

“But it does give us confidence, and we’re not scared. We respect them for how good they are, but we won’t be intimidated.’’

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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