Sophie Cunningham was nine years old the last time the Missouri women’s basketball team beat a top-four team. The Tigers beat No. 4 Baylor, 64-61, on Jan. 4, 2006.
On Sunday, No. 15 Missouri (14-2, 2-1 SEC) beat the defending national champions, No. 4 South Carolina (13-2, 2-1), 83-74.
Cunningham was the big reason why.
The junior All-American guard had 27 points on 9-for-10 shooting. She somehow put the ball in the net when she was directly under it, double-teamed and on short time.
Oh, and she has one healthy leg.
Cunningham suffered a right knee sprain against Alabama on Dec. 31. She sat out Thursday’s loss to LSU, and she wore a bulky knee brace on Sunday.
If not for the brace, though, the fans who battled the dreary weather to make it to Mizzou Arena wouldn’t have known Cunningham was injured. She said she wasn’t hurting at all.
In fact, she was having fun.
After she scooped in a layup and drew a foul in the second half, she strutted to the bench and did a little dance.
“You know, we are getting older, and I’m just trying to enjoy every moment,” Cunningham said about doing the dance. “Our fans, they love seeing us out there, and they love seeing us have fun. And I’m not the most serious, as you can see, but I was focused in and having so much fun.”
Cunningham may not be the most serious. But that’s what makes watching Missouri exciting. Cunningham pumps her arms to get the crowd fired up, and it usually gets the growing crowd in Mizzou Arena on its feet. Her confidence and gritty style of play is infectious.
“She’s a leader overall, but she’s going to give it her all every possession, every play,” sophomore Amber Smith, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds on Sunday, said. “She’s in it for her team.”
Smith is right. Cunningham rarely talks about herself in post-game interviews. She scoots around questions about how she played to gives credit to her team and the “sixth man,” referring to the home crowd at Mizzou Arena.
Cunningham noted sophomore Jordan Roundtree’s only basket of the game — a three-pointer early in the second quarter to give Missouri a two-point lead — as a basket the Tigers needed.
“Everyone stepped up,” Cunningham said. “It took everyone. Even if they sat on the bench, it took them to cheer us on … This team is becoming more and more elite. Props to our coaches because they make us do it the right way.”
This is the second consecutive year that Missouri has beaten South Carolina. Last year, the Tigers won 62-60 on a last-second layup from Cunningham. It would be South Carolina’s last loss of the season before they went on to win the national championship.
This year, Missouri had control the entire game. South Carolina went on runs, and the Gamecocks showed their ability. But Missouri had this from the get-go, and the Tigers knew it. They were ready to win a big game after dropping Thursday night’s SEC home opener to LSU.
“Our mentality going into this game was, ‘We’re winning this game,’” Cunningham said. “Everyone from top to bottom knew we were going to … I’m glad it was frustrating for them because that’s what we worked on and we executed it perfectly. Well, not perfectly, but pretty close.”
Missouri held off South Carolina in the first half, much of that thanks to keeping Gamecocks star A’ja Wilson contained. Wilson, who averages 24.6 points a game and 11.4 rebounds, drew two early fouls and was forced to sit most of the first quarter.
With about six minutes left in the half, Cierra Porter elbowed Wilson, and play stopped without a foul on Porter, much to the dismay of South Carolina coach Dawn Staley. Wilson sat out for about a minute and a half. The All-American forward didn’t score her first basket until 4:11 left in the half. She only took two shots the entire first half.
The second half wasn't much better for Wilson. She picked up her third foul less than two minutes in. Then Staley picked up a technical foul, and Cunningham headed to the line where she would make both free throws easily.
Missouri had its largest lead of the game, 42-29, and the Gamecocks were frustrated. The Tigers controlled the rest of the third quarter, leading by 10 before the final 10 minutes began. Then came the drama.
Wilson fouled out with a little less than three minutes left in the game. Staley then drew her second technical of the game and had to leave the court. She would watch the rest of the game from the locker room.
“I have to protect my players,” Staley said. “I have to protect them from the tears they have in the locker room, and I’m going to do that every day of the week. Every single day of the week. I’m going to protect my players. Every day. So whoever wants to call our games, talk about our kids, I’m going to protect them every day.”
Staley was clearly upset with the calls made on herself and Wilson. She said she couldn’t prepare for Sunday unless “you want to bring in some SEC officials to prep for throughout the week, and we can’t do that.”
Wilson exited with a season-low eight points. On the Missouri side, both Jordan Frericks and Hannah Schuchts fouled out. Cunningham and Porter both had four fouls. Wilson is averaging 27.8 minutes this season. On Sunday, she played 19 minutes. Staley wasn’t happy about that either.
“Maybe you know the history of Player of the Year candidates playing just half a game,” Staley said. “Half a game. I’ve seen all of them, and I’ve never seen any of them play half a game like A’ja Wilson played today. Never seen it. And I don’t know what it is, but we’re going to figure it out. “
How did Missouri control Wilson in the post? They fouled her, Staley said. But Pingeton gives her team credit for containing one of the nation’s top players.
Missouri had to play a physical game in order to clog the paint and make it tough for Wilson to get anything done.
“She’s just so versatile,” Porter said. “You have to guard her anywhere on the court. You have to make it tough to catch it. It really was a team effort following the game plan in the paint.”
Porter, Cunningham and Pingeton all stressed the notion of the team effort. They mentioned players who barely played, like Roundtree, but who had clutch plays to propel the Tigers to the win. They mentioned steady players, like Lauren Aldridge, who only had four points but played 36 minutes and handled the ball extremely well, including a sweet back-door pass to Cunningham in the final seconds of the first half.
The 2006 team that beat No. 4 Baylor lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Virginia Tech, but it ended with a 21-10 record. It was just the second time the Tigers finished its season with 21 wins since 1985.
Missouri just beat a top-four team in South Carolina for the first time since that year. There might be some records to be broken this season, too.
