COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball had three players earn All-SEC recognition, announced Tuesday by the Southeastern Conference. Senior guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) was named to the All-SEC First Team for third consecutive season, senior forward Cierra Porter (Columbia, Mo.) was named the Sixth Woman of the Year, and Akira Levy (Baxter, Tenn.) was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team.
In addition, Cunningham was named to the All-SEC First Team by the Associated Press for the second straight season.
With her third All-SEC First Team honor, Cunningham is the first player in program history to earn All-Conference First Team honors in three consecutive seasons. The SEC’s active career scoring leader with 2,082 points, Cunningham is currently averaging 17.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. Her 72 three-pointers rank fifth in a single season in program history.
Cunningham currently ranks fourth in the SEC in scoring (17.3 ppg), third in three-point percentage (40.7), third in three-pointers per game (2.3) and third in free throw percentage (81.8). In conference play, she leads the SEC in three-point shooting 46.5 percent) and threes per game (2.9). Cunningham has reached 20 points in 13 games this season, including eight times during SEC play, and 30 points twice. Mizzou is 12-1 when she scores 20+, and 2-0 when she reaches 30 points.
The Tiger senior is one of three Mizzou players to score 2,000 career points. Among program records, Cunningham ranks first in free throws made (503), third in three-point percentage (40.5), third in scoring (2,082), third in three-pointers made (225), third in free throw percentage (83.4), fourth in points per game (16.8) and fourth in assists (378).
Porter becomes the second player in Mizzou history to be named SEC Sixth Woman of the Year, and the first since Morgan Eye earned the honor in 2013. After originally medically retiring due to nagging knee injuries in June, Porter returned to the court in late December, when she came off the bench in her first seven contests. She is currently averaging 7.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting a career-best 86.7 percent from the free throw line (39-for-45).
In her season debut against Arkansas State (Dec. 30), Porter became the 36th member of Mizzou’s 1,000-point club as she scored four points in 11 minutes. Porter has scored in double figures in five contests this season, all coming during the last nine games. Against Arkansas (Feb. 28), Porter tallied her eighth career 20-point game with a season-high 21 points while shooting a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line in the game, which matched her career-best performance from the charity stripe.
Porter’s stout 86.7 percent clip from the line currently ranks as the fourth-best mark in a single season in Mizzou history, while her career free throw percentage of 80.0 percent ranks fifth all-time. She also ranks ninth in career rebounds with 749 rebounds and 10th in career blocks with 109.
After starting the first four games of her career, Levy provided a spark off the bench with 4.8 points and 2.1 assists per game before her season was cut short due to a season-ending knee injury. She is the third Tiger to make the All-SEC Freshman team in the last four seasons, joining teammates Cunningham in 2016 and junior guard Amber Smith (Shreveport, La.) in 2017.
Among SEC freshman, Levy tallied the fourth-most assists with 58 and the seventh-most steals with 24. She scored in double figures in five games, and recorded three or more assists in 11 contests.
— Mizzou Athletics —