COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball sophomore guard Sophie Cunningham was named ESPNW Player of the Week, as announced Monday. Cunningham led Mizzou to a pair of dramatic wins over Florida and No. 6 South Carolina, averaging 27.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists.

The two performances marked the second time this season Cunningham has scored at least 20 points in back-to-back games. She’s reached 20 points eight times this season and 18 times in her career. Cunningham has scored in double figures in six consecutive games as Mizzou has won three in a row and eight of its past 11 contests.

Mizzou launched the week with a gritty 74-67 road win over Florida. Cunningham poured in a game-high 28 points, accounting for 44 percent of Mizzou’s scoring output. The sophomore shot 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Her six unanswered points in the fourth quarter erased a deficit and catapulted Mizzou ahead for good as the Tigers sealed a road victory.

On Sunday, Mizzou toppled No. 6 South Carolina in front of a raucous crowd as Cunningham recorded a game-high 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting (62.5 percent). On the Tigers’ final offensive possession, Cunningham took on multiple defenders, drove through lane and buried a game-winning layup with 0.6 seconds left to lift her squad to an upset over the three-time defending SEC champions.

Cunningham added seven rebounds and five assists in an all-around effort. She has racked up at least 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists on six different occasions this season. Cunningham scored 20 of her 28 points in the second half, making 8-of-11 field goals. Her clutch performance allowed Mizzou to come back from down 10 and earn its biggest victory of the 2016-17 campaign.

Cunningham is the only player in the SEC shooting above 45 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line. She’s averaging 17.2 points per game this season, which ranks fourth in the league.

Next up on the slate for the Tigers is a home Senior Night matchup against the Ole Miss Rebels on Thursday, with tip set for 7 p.m. at Mizzou Arena.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Sophie Cunningham made a layup with 0.6 seconds to give Missouri a 62-60 comeback victory over No. 6 South Carolina on Sunday.

Cunningham had 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting to help the Tigers (19-9, 9-5 Southeastern Conference) win their third straight. They beat the Gamecocks (22-4, 12-2) for the second time since joining the conference.

Sierra Michaelis added 11 points, and Cierra Porter had 10 for Missouri. The Tigers trailed 48-44 after three quarters.

A’ja Wilson had 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead South Carolina, and Allisha Gray added 10 points. The Gamecocks lost for the second time in three games, with the other setback coming at No. 1 UConn.

Missouri led 58-55 in the closing minutes after a pair of free throws by Cunningham, but South Carolina tied it at 60 on Wilson’s two free throws.

The Gamecocks had the ball with less than 20 seconds remaining, but Kaela Davis was called for a charge — taken by Missouri’s Lianna Doty — to give the ball back to the Tigers.

Moments later, Cunningham put Missouri up 62-60 with her layup — and Wilson was unable to attempt a shot for South Carolina following a timeout.

BIG PICTURE

South Carolina: The Gamecocks were likely weary from a busy week of travel, having played at UConn on Monday, returned home to defeat Vanderbilt on Thursday and then playing at Missouri on Sunday — with a road trip to Texas A&M awaiting next week. With center Alaina Coates in foul trouble throughout the game before fouling out with 4:28 remaining, South Carolina’s imposing frontcourt was outrebounded 34-26 by the Tigers.

Missouri: The nine conference wins are the most for Missouri since joining the SEC in 2015, and the Tigers have now won five straight conference games at home — the school’s longest streak since the 2005-06 season.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

South Carolina wasn’t likely to fall far in the polls following its lost at UConn, but Sunday’s defeat could cause voters to second-guess that decision. Missouri, meanwhile, didn’t receive any votes in The Associated Press poll last week, but it likely will after a signature win like Sunday’s victory.

UP NEXT

South Carolina is at No. 23 Texas A&M on Thursday.

Missouri hosts Mississippi on Thursday.

— Associated Press —

FORT MYERS, Fla.  – Mizzou Baseball won its series finale with Eastern Michigan, 7-2, on Sunday at City of Palms Park, completing a 3-1 weekend against the Eagles. RS sophomore Liam Carter (Highland Park, Ill.) turned in a tremendous start, allowing just two runs over 5.0 innings while scattering only four hits and a walk with three strikeouts. He was backed by early runs, sparked by a pair of doubles from sophomore OF Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.), who doubled and scored in each of his first two at-bats.

Carter earned his first career win in what was his first career start. It was also his first decision since March 29 of last season when he earned a save against St. Louis at Kauffman Stadium. The Tigers put men on base throughout the game and actually stranded 14 runners, but the early runs and a late homer by C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.), his first of the season, was all the offense Mizzou needed as the bullpen was outstanding in relief of Carter.

Mizzou got on the board in the first as Brumfield ripped a double into left and was knocked in by Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) after a sacrifice bunt. Mizzou eventually loaded the bases but a pair of strikeouts stranded them loaded.

Carter came back out in the second and allowed a leadoff double, but he pitched around it brilliantly, picking up a strikeout looking on a big, 12-6 curveball to strand the tying run on third base, sending the game to the bottom of the second. EMU starter Brad Allen appeared to be cruising in the second, retiring the first two men he faced, but Brumfield ripped a two-out double into left for his second of the day. He was then knocked in on a full-count single the other way by Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) as the Tigers took a 2-0 lead after two.

It was an easy 1-2-3 inning for Carter in the third as he picked up his second strikeout and a pair of groundouts. Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) led off the third with his first career triple off the wall in right. He came around to score on a wild pitch, extending the Mizzou lead to 3-0.

It was a quiet fourth inning for both teams and EMU finally got to Carter for two runs in the fifth inning. Mizzou answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to a throwing error on a double-play ball by the Eagles. That gave Mizzou a 4-2 lead after five as Ty Shoaff (Akron, Ohio) relived Carter in the sixth. He pitched around a one-out single in the frame thanks to a slick play by Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas) at third for the second out.

Junior RHP Nolan Gromacki (Smithville, Mo.) pitched a shutout seventh inning and worked around a bases-loaded, two-out jam after a walk and two infield singles in for a shutout eighth. Bond hit his homer, a solo dinger, on a full count in the eighth inning to extend the lead to 6-2. Matt Berler (Hoover, Ala.) had a great at-bat in the eighth inning as well, working a full count and fouling off several pitches before roping an RBI single back up the middle to give Mizzou a 7-2 lead.

RS sophomore RHP Cameron Dulle (St. Louis, Mo.) made his Mizzou debut and closed the game out from there. Mizzou will be back in action next week at the Kleberg Bank Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas. Mizzou will open action Thursday with a true road game at Texas A&M Corpus Christi at 6:30 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs III’s different look gave the Volunteers some different luck.

Grant Williams scored 25 points and Hubbs added 21 on Saturday as Tennessee bounced back from its most lopsided loss of the season by delivering a 90-70 blowout of Missouri.

Hubbs had his hair in cornrows for the first time this season, though he said it wasn’t a superstitious attempt to get out of his recent funk. Hubbs, the Vols’ leading scorer, had exceeded the 11-point mark just once in the six games leading up to this one while battling a knee injury.

“I just had to do something with it,” Hubbs said. “It was getting out of control, so one of my friends was like, `Just braid it.’ ”

The hairstyle resulted in some good-natured teasing from Tennessee coach Rick Barnes as Hubbs entered the postgame interview room.

Hubbs said he felt faster with his hair braided.

“That hair was like a windshield holding you back,” Barnes quipped.

When Barnes asked why Hubbs didn’t just cut his hair short, the senior guard replied that it would “look weird.”

“You don’t think that does?” Barnes replied.

Hubbs wasn’t saying how he planned to style his hair for Tennessee’s next game, but his teammates may want him to keep the cornrows as a good-luck charm. Tennessee had lost three of its last four games before Saturday and was coming off an 83-58 loss at No. 13 Kentucky, but the Vols’ victory over Missouri kept alive their NCAA Tournament hopes.

Tennessee (15-12, 7-7 SEC) already has matched its win total from last year, when the Volunteers finished 15-19 for their first losing season since 2004-05.

Although Tennessee has a much better record, Missouri (7-19, 2-12) actually had been playing better than the Vols recently. Missouri had split its last four games. Tennessee had lost three of its last four and was coming off its most lopsided defeat of the year — an 83-58 setback at No. 13 Kentucky.

“We’ve actually used Missouri as an example all year to our players (because they’re) a team that shows great perseverance,” Barnes said. “They keep playing hard. And over the last couple of weeks, they’ve gotten some wins because they’ll battle you. We’ve told our guys we’ve got to have that resolve.”

But the Tigers couldn’t put up much resistance against Tennessee.

After Missouri’s Cullen VanLeer gave Missouri a 2-0 lead 54 seconds into the game, the Tigers wouldn’t get another basket for over eight minutes. Tennessee went on a 16-2 run and scored 13 straight points during one portion of that Missouri drought.

Tennessee was ahead 41-28 at halftime and led by as many as 24 in the second half.

“The impressive thing about (Tennessee) is how hard they play,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “It’s not that they’re particularly big, but they play really hard. I thought we didn’t match that intensity level at the beginning of the game. Consequently, when that happens, you tend to foul a lot. We fouled a lot, especially in the first half, put them on the line and they made free throws.”

Admiral Schofield scored 17 points and Shembari Phillips had 10 for Tennessee. Terrence Phillips scored 18 points, Jordan Barnett had 11 and Kevin Puryear added 10 for Missouri.

BIG PICTURE

Missouri: Saturday’s game represented a reunion of sorts for Barnett and Barnes. Barnett played 21 games and averaged 1.9 points in 2014-15 for a Texas team that was coached by Barnes. … Missouri’s frustrating day included technical fouls that were called on assistant coach Rob Fulford and Phillips.

Tennessee: The Vols have led by at least 13 points in five of their losses this season, but they had no trouble protecting a double-digit advantage Saturday. Tennessee remained in front by at least 10 throughout the second half.

TURNING POINT

After trailing by 18 late in the first half, Missouri went on an 11-0 spurt to cut Tennessee’s lead to 33-26.

Tennessee responded with a five-point possession, as Lamonte Turner hit a 3-pointer and Williams sank two free throws after getting fouled away from the ball. The Vols weren’t seriously threatened the rest of the way.

UP NEXT

Missouri: Hosts No. 13 Kentucky on Tuesday.

Tennessee: Hosts Vanderbilt on Wednesday.

— Associated Press —