DES MOINES, Iowa – The No. 22/22 Drake University women's basketball team hosts Missouri State Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the first of two remaining games this regular season. The game will be broadcast on The Valley on ESPN3 and on the radio on Praise 940.
 
Drake (23-4) clinched its first outright Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship since the 1999-2000 season with a 70-57 victory over UNI last Friday at the Knapp Center. The MVC regular season title is the first since 2007-08 (shared with Evansville and Illinois State) and the sixth overall for the program.
 
Drake is the No. 1 seed for next week's Hoops in the Heartland Tournament, March 9-12, where the Bulldogs will try to win their first MVC Tournament title since 2007. If Drake wins the tournament in Moline, Ill., it will be the first time since 1999-2000, the program has claimed both the regular season and MVC tournament titles in the same year.
 
With the win over UNI, Drake set the program record for the longest winning streak at 17-straight games, breaking a tie with the 1996-97 Drake team. The winning streak ranks fourth all-time in MVC history. Wichita State has the top streak at 20 games set back during the 2013-14 season. The 2016-17 Drake team, which is 16-0 in MVC action, can be the first Valley team to ever go undefeated in MVC regular season play if it beats Missouri State and Wichita State. Three teams (Wichita State in 2014-15, UNI in 2010-11 and Drake in 1997-98) have gone 17-1 in league play since the MVC started in 1992-93, but no team has ever gone 18-0. SIU went undefeated in conference play in back-to-back seasons in the 1980s but it was when teams played in the Gateway Conference.
 
Missouri State (16-11, 12-4 MVC) will be either the second or third seed at the MVC Tournament. The Bears need to win Thursday and then beat UNI Saturday night for a chance to beat the Panthers in a tie-break should the two finish with identical records. MSU has won 12 of its last 14 games. Junior Liza Fruendt leads the Bears in scoring at 15.5 points per game.
 
The Bulldogs will close out their regular season on Saturday against Wichita State at 2 p.m. After the game against the Shockers, Drake will honor its three seniors Caitlin Ingle (Runnells, Iowa), Cortni Rush (Mason City, Iowa) and Lizzy Wendell (Blue Springs, Mo.).