After win over Tennessee, MU women are step closer to hosting NCAA Tournament games

Even an hour after one of Missouri’s greatest wins this season, a crowd still awaited Sophie Cunningham. About 100 people filed along the perimeter of Mizzou Arena’s court.

The star of the Mizzou women’s basketball team signs autographs for fans after every home game. But the line is rarely this long because this many people never show up to Cunningham’s games — at least not until Sunday, when the No. 13 Tigers beat the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers for just the second time in program history, 77-73. A program-record 11,092 people were in attendance.

“That’s what I dreamed about as a kid,” said Cunningham, a Columbia native who finished with 32 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Even after Cunningham accommodated every person waiting in line, two more groups stopped her as she made her way toward a tunnel and back inside the belly of Mizzou Arena.

Missouri coach Robin Pingeton stood on the other side of the court and watched all of this.

Pingeton, in her eighth season coaching the Tigers, wasn’t sure if this was the biggest win in her time at MU. But it is certainly one of the most significant.

The victory bolstered Missouri’s chances of being one of the top 16 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which would allow the Tigers to host the first two rounds. Mizzou has never done that. And as Sunday’s game showed, the Tigers will be hard to beat at home.

Missouri is now 7-1 in its last eight home games against ranked teams. The only loss was a narrow one against Mississippi State, the No. 2 team in the country.

“This does not happen without you guys,” Pingeton said to fans after the game, when she grabbed a microphone from the scorer’s table.

That’s a cliché, of course, but it might be true here.

With a second remaining, Mizzou forward Jordan Frericks, who had 16 points and seven rebounds, fouled a three-point shooter, giving Tennessee a chance to tie. The player at the line, freshman Rennia Davis, came into this game a 72.3 percent foul shooter, and her coach Holly Warlick believes the forward would normally make all three.

But with Cunningham encouraging the crowd to get louder with each successive free throw, Davis blew the Volunteers’ chance. She hit just one of three free throws, and Mizzou grabbed the rebound to secure the victory.

Cunningham shimmied her shoulders and swaggered toward the MU bench. Mizzou had led by as much as 15 points in the first half before Tennessee trimmed its deficit to six points at halftime. In the third quarter, the Volunteers pressed more aggressively and forced eight of Mizzou’s 16 total turnovers. But Cunningham scored 12 points in the final 5 minutes, starting with a three-pointer that broke a 62-62 tie.

The junior guard was giddy even 40 minutes after the win. A reporter asked Pingeton if this game might have provided some extra motivation for MU to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, and Cunningham answered before her coach could.

“Uh huh,” Cunningham said, with her nose nuzzled near a microphone.

Back in mid-November, on the way to a game at Missouri State, Pingeton had each of her players write their goals on note cards. Being one of the NCAA Tournament’s top 16 seeds was one for this team, which openly says it is the most talented squad Pingeton has had at MU.

Guard Lauren Aldridge said earlier this week that the Tigers — who were the No. 13 overall seed in the tournament selection committee’s latest reveal — don’t obsess over the chance to be a host, but she thinks it pushes them. It provides a bigger picture to consider, another motivation while they grind through practice and play weaker teams.

“We’re not in the same position we’ve been in the last couple of years. We’re going to go to the NCAA Tournament,” said Pingeton, whose team has tied last season’s victory total with two regular-season games remaining. “ … Now it’s just kind of battling for seeding. Let’s go out there and let it all hang out, see where it falls for us.”

That Missouri is even discussing the idea of hosting is a signifier of the progress the program has experienced under Pingeton. The reigning SEC coach of the year said she walked onto the court Sunday, saw the largest crowd in program history and felt “really emotional.” Then she sensed some pressure, a feeling that her team could not let so many people down.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she made sure to say, because this was a healthy amount of anxiety, the kind that could help her team if more record crowds fill Mizzou Arena for the postseason.

This story was originally published February 18, 2018 at 6:36 PM with the headline "After win over Tennessee, MU women are step closer to hosting NCAA Tournament games."