ST. CHARLES, Mo. — After dealing with a difficult defeat in last season’s Missouri Valley tournament championship game, the Creighton women were searching for retribution in 2010.

Instead, heartbreak followed the Jays once again to the Family Arena.

Fifth-seeded Northern Iowa got two free throws from Lizzie Boeck with 7.1 seconds to cap a run of nine straight points and knock off No. 2 seed Creighton 54-53 in Sunday’s title game. UNI earned the school’s first trip to the NCAA tournament under former Creighton associate coach Tanya Warren.

“It hurts. It really hurts,” said Creighton senior Chevelle Herring, whose team fell 47-45 to Evansville in the 2009 title game. “We fell short twice in a row. ... I don’t even know what to say. It doesn’t feel good.”

The Jays (20-10), who had a season-best five-game winning streak snapped, now will await the call from the WNIT, the consolation prize that they now deal with two years in a row.

“Congratulations to Northern Iowa,” Jays coach Jim Flanery said. “They played good basketball from the second half of the conference season and through the weekend. They did a lot of good things today. They hung in there and finished the job.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my group. We have an unbelievable group of young women.”

Boeck was fouled along the left baseline by Kellie Nelson — her fifth foul that had the Creighton bench wondering why there was a call there.

“We went to the free-throw line and we thought championship right here and I just locked into that,’’ Boeck said. “I tried to get rid of everything else that was going on and just focused on those two throws. It was pretty exciting.”

Creighton had one final chance to win the game as Megan Neuvirth drove the right side of the lane and under pressure had a shot stripped.

The Bluejays expected a foul call, but didn’t get it.

“I was just trying to get the length of the floor and either get someone open or draw a foul or make a play,” Neuvirth said. “It didn’t work out.”

Boeck, the tournament’s most valuable player, scored the final seven points of the game as Northern Iowa (17-15) held the Bluejays scoreless over the final 7:46. Creighton held its biggest lead of the game on a Neuvirth basket that made it 53-45.

“We gave up some things on rebounds, then we fouled them and they made some tough shots,” Neuvirth said. “And then when they went zone, we couldn’t find rhythm.”

The Panthers led 31-27 at halftime, doing it with perimeter shooting. But in the second half, they had to go inside with Boeck, who finished with a game-high 19 points.

“Lizzie Boeck was a load and made the plays at the end,” Flanery said. “Their zone seemed to bother us. We couldn’t get into rhythm and kind of changed the game down the stretch.”

Northern Iowa became the fourth MVC school to have both the men’s and women’s programs win conference tournament titles. Creighton in 2002 was the last school to do so.

“I’m at a little loss for words right now,” said Warren, who was at Creighton from 2004-07. “I can’t tell you how proud I am of these young women. What a great ballgame. We knew it was going to be a battle.”

The Jays, now 1-4 in MVC tourney title games, fell to 16-1 on the season when holding opponents under 60 points.

They were 0 for 8 down the stretch with six turnovers after building the biggest lead of the game on Neuvirth’s basket.

“I didn’t do a very good job adjusting in getting us in a position where we got the kind of shot opportunities we wanted,” Flanery said.

But in the end, the Jays still had the chance to go dancing.

“Chevelle is probably the shiftiest player we have, but Megan end-line to end-line is our fastest player,” Flanery said. “The goal was to have Megan fake-screen for Chevy, get it, wipe her player off and just go because she’s the fastest player end-line to end-line. She knew she had time to either get to the rim or get to the 3-point line and kick if they gave help.

“We did what we wanted to do. That was what we wanted and I felt like Megan played the right play.”

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