COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball senior guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) is one of 25 athletes named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list, as announced by ESPN on Wednesday. The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2019 John R. Wooden Award Women’s Player of the Year, presented by Wendy’s, the nation’s top individual honor.

Last season, Cunningham was named to the Wooden Award preseason top 30, midseason top 25, late season top 20 and the national ballot.

A top 20 list will be announced later in the season, followed by a list of 15 finalists which will be revealed before the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the Wooden Award will be announced April 12 at the College Basketball Awards.

Through 16 games, Cunningham is Mizzou’s leading scorer and ranks in the top-20 in the SEC in both scoring and rebounding, as her 16.0 points per game ranks ninth and her 5.9 rebounds per game ranks 19th. Cunningham has reached 20 points six times this season, and has reached 18 points in six of her last eight, including a 20 point performance in Mizzou’s road win over No. 10 Tennessee on Sunday. Cunningham also dished out six assists against the Lady Volunteers, her ninth career game of 20+ points and 5+ assists, the most by a Tiger since the 2000-01 season.

Cunningham is the SEC career active scoring leader with 1,819 points, and ranks sixth in career rebounds (591) and seventh in steals. Among program records, Cunningham currently ranks third in free throw percentage (.828), fourth in three-pointers made (184), fourth in career three-point percentage (.397), fifth in scoring (1,819 points), fifth in career points per game (16.5) and fifth in assists (342).

Last season, Cunningham earned AP All-America Honorable Mention and All-SEC First Team honors for the second consecutive season after averaging 18.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. She was the only player in the nation to shoot better than 54 percent from the field (54.2 percent, 186-for-343), 45 percent from three (45.7 percent, 69-for-151) and 83 percent from the free throw line (83.6 percent, 133-for-159).

Mizzou returns home to Mizzou Arena to face Arkansas on Thursday, Jan. 10. Tipoff from Mizzou Arena will be at 7 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told Kyle Alexander to stop thinking about scoring and concentrate only on defense and rebounding.

Since the talk last week, the points and rebounds have come in bunches for the 6-foot-11 senior forward.

Alexander scored 14 points and grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds as third-ranked Tennessee routed Missouri 87-63 Tuesday at Mizzou Arena. It was Alexander’s second straight double-double in Southeastern Conference play.

“He’s telling you everything you don’t want to hear, but you need to hear,” Alexander said of his talk with Barnes. “Those are kind of like the father-son meetings, the talks with your dad. They’re beneficial, but you don’t always want to hear what he has to say.”

The Volunteers (13-1, 2-0 SEC) displayed their depth against the Tigers (9-4, 0-1 SEC). Grant Williams entered as the conference’s leading scorer at 19.9 points per game, but he scored just four before fouling out.

No matter. Jordan Bowden came off the bench and scored 20 points for the second straight game, Jordan Bone added 17 points and Admiral Schofield finished with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Freshman guard Xavier Pinson scored 14 points and Jordan Geist had 12 first-half points for Missouri. The Tigers were playing for just the second time since Dec. 22, and they began with a flurry. Led by the scoring and passing of Geist, they took a 27-18 lead when Geist made a nifty feed to Kevin Puryear for a dunk with 7:04 left in the first half.

But Jeremiah Tilmon and Mark Smith — two of Missouri’s top three scorers — sat most of the first half with foul trouble, and the Tigers couldn’t sustain their early surge.

“We had good momentum, good energy, but you have guys out there playing extended minutes that aren’t used to playing that many minutes in those situations,” Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said.

The Volunteers finished the half on a 24-4 spurt to take a 42-31 lead. The advantage grew quickly in the second half as Alexander helped Tennessee hold a 38-29 rebounding edge.

Alexander, who has packed on 30 pounds since arriving at Tennessee as a wispy 195-pound freshman, controlled the paint.

“I used to struggle to get a point up on the board my first two years,” Alexander said. “The fact I scored 14 and I didn’t really even make a post move, that’s crazy.”

Alexander’s defense — he blocked three shots — and rebounding pleased Barnes most.

“He’s making the extra effort to use his length and tip the ball to himself and go get it,” Barnes said. “That’s what he’s doing, and you’ve got to give him all the credit.”

BIG PICTURE

Missouri: The Tigers like to run their offense through Jeremiah Tilmon in the post, but his inability to stay on the floor because of foul trouble makes that a dicey proposition. The 6-foot-10 sophomore forward committed an offensive foul trying to bull through a double team with 17:45 left in the first half and compounded the mistake with an angry reaction that drew a technical foul. He sat the rest of the first half. He committed his third foul 46 seconds into the second half and finished with three points in nine minutes before fouling out.

Tennessee: Junior guard Lamonte Turner missed nine of Tennessee’s first 12 games with a shoulder injury. In his second game back, he scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting from 3-point range against Missouri. He played 29 minutes before fouling out.

“With the addition of Lamonte, that changed the game for them,” Martin said. “He’s just as fast as Bone, and he can shoot the ball and is an aggressive shooter from 3. They were already good, but he takes them to another level.”

UP NEXT

Missouri: Visit South Carolina on Saturday.

Tennessee: Tries to stay perfect in the SEC on Saturday at Florida.

— Associated Press —

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham irritated Tennessee’s fan base late in the third quarter by elbowing Tennessee’s Rennia Davis on her way to the basket.

She gave them even more reason to gripe by the end of the day.

Cunningham scored 20 points and Haley Troup added a career-high 16 points off the bench as Missouri edged the 10th-ranked Lady Volunteers 66-64 on Sunday for its fifth consecutive victory. Missouri (13-3, 2-0 SEC) beat the Lady Vols at Knoxville for the first time in five attempts and ended a 20-game skid in road games against top-10 teams.

“It was such a good game, it was a hard-fought win,” said Cunningham, who scored 32 points in a victory over Tennessee last season. “Honestly, I prefer those close games. I think blowout games can get old.”

A postgame video showed Cunningham exchanging words with Tennessee’s Rae Burrell and Lou Brown after the game. The same video showed Cunningham going back to shake the hand of Tennessee assistant to the head coach Janet McGee, who initially appeared to walk past her without shaking her hand.

“I just wanted to make sure that she tapped my hand because we’re going to meet again and I kind of wanted to end on good terms,” Cunningham said.

Tennessee’s Rennia Davis missed a potential go-ahead shot in the final five seconds and a game-tying attempt at the buzzer.

In a game that neither team ever led by more than five points, Missouri was ahead 65-60 when Tennessee (12-2, 1-1) staged one last rally.

Zaay Green made a three-point play to cut Missouri’s lead to 65-63 with 1:28 remaining. Evina Westbrook had a chance to tie the game when she went to the foul line with 59.4 seconds left, but Missouri maintained a 65-64 advantage after she missed the second of two free throws.

Cunningham missed a shot on Missouri’s next possession, giving Tennessee another opportunity. Tennessee called a timeout with 19.6 seconds left and got the ball to Davis, whose shot bounced off the rim.

“I think it’s a makeable shot for me,” Davis said. “It just didn’t go in.”

After Cunningham made one of two free throws with 3.1 seconds left, Tennessee called another timeout and got the ball at midcourt. The Lady Vols again threw to Davis, whose hurried shot that fell short of the basket.

Troup, a redshirt freshman who was averaging just 2.9 points per game, put Missouri ahead for good 56-54 by hitting a 3-pointer with 6:08 remaining. Troup went 4 of 6 from 3-point range.

“You can kind of feel it as a player when you’re kind of in the zone,” Troup said. “I just felt that.”

Lauren Aldridge added 12 points for Missouri and made all three of her 3-point attempts.

Davis and Westbrook had 16 points each for Tennessee, which had a four-game winning streak snapped. Cheridene Green had 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Zaay Green added 11 points.

BIG PICTURE

Missouri: After shooting just 34.6 percent (9 of 26) in the first half, Missouri shot 56.5 percent (13 of 23) in the second half. The Tigers were 8 of 11 in the third quarter. Missouri also shot 6 of 9 from 3-point range in the second half. Cunningham, Aldridge and Troup were a combined 10 of 14 on 3-point attempts for the game.

Tennessee: The Lady Vols couldn’t overcome an off day from senior Meme Jackson, who scored just two points and missed all nine of her field-goal attempts. Jackson was averaging 14.8 points was coming off a 27-point performance in a 78-69 victory at Auburn.

CUNNINGHAM’S ELBOW

Cunningham delivered her elbow to Davis’ face in the final minute of the third quarter while driving to the basket for a shot that extended Missouri’s lead to 48-44.

Although Cunningham’s basket counted, she was called for an unsportsmanlike foul after officials saw the replay. Jackson made the ensuing two free throws for Tennessee.

“I’m really not surprised because of who it was,” Davis said. “At the end of the day, I was just playing defense and she was dribbling and she stuck her elbow all the way up and I flew back. She hit me dead in the eye.”

Cunningham, who has a reputation for physical play, had six rebounds, six assists and six turnovers to go along with her 20 points.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

Missouri had a 25-6 edge in bench scoring that made up for the Lady Vols’ 15-3 advantage in second-chance points.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

This loss likely will drop Tennessee out of the top 10.

UP NEXT

Missouri hosts Arkansas on Thursday.

Tennessee hosts No. 16 Kentucky on Thursday.

— Associated Press —