It’s usually not a good thing for Wichita State when the words “Illinois State” and “sweep” appear in the same sentence.

Not this year.

Alex Harden had 17 points and Jessica Diamond had 15 as the Shockers (14-6, 8-0 Missouri Valley Conference) beat the Illinois State Redbirds (13-7, 5-3 MVC) 66-54 to complete their first regular-season sweep of their conference foes under Shockers’ coach Jody Adams.

WSU also improved to 8-0 in the conference, the best start in Shocker’s history.

“It was a great team win and we fought 40 minutes for that one,” Adams said.

WSU took control of the game by holding the Redbirds to just three field goals over the first eight minutes of the second half. Two lay-ups by Jazimen Gordon gave WSU a 45-33 lead, its largest of the game.

A three pointer by Candace Sykes, a driving lay-up by Jamie Russell and a Janae Smith jumper capped a 12-3 run to cut the lead to 48-45.

But Gordon followed with two short jumpers. Diamond swiped away an offensive rebound which lead to a Darice Fountaine jumper and the lead swelled back to 54-47.

The Redbirds came into Koch Arena Friday night and hoped to spoil the Shockers’ undefeated conference record for a second straight season. It was last year that WSU had its 7-0 MVC record and 10-game winning streak snapped in a 68-59 loss to Illinois State.

However, this is a new team and it was a different outcome.

 “We didn’t even talk about last year too much—this team is so much different than last year. I have phenomenal leaders in Jessi (Diamond), Chynna (Turner) and Jaz (Gordon),” Adams said. “We talked about not repeating last year a long time ago and ever since then we rolled off past last year.”

However, WSU was still thrilled to overcome the mental hurdle that was Illinois State, who sported a 7-1 record against Adams before this season.

“Illinois State, ever since I’ve been here, has given us trouble in the past,” Diamond said. “It makes the win that much better knowing that we fought them hard.”

Gordon, playing in her first game since missing the last four, had 13 points and three rebounds.

“All the credit goes to my team and my coaching,” she said. “They believe in me—Jody telling me to get extra shots in the gym, my teammates continuing to get me the ball.”

WSU will be at home against the Indiana State Sycamores (11-7, 3-4 MVC) Sunday at 2:05 p.m.