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 —