No. 25 Missouri women’s basketball is blown out at No. 19 South Carolina

Unlike last year’s Missouri women’s basketball game at South Carolina, there were no brawls, no trash-talk and as of Monday night, no lawsuits.

Instead, the 19th-ranked Gamecocks (13-5, 4-2 SEC) blew out the No. 25 Tigers (15-5, 4-2 SEC) 79-65 in a game that was never really competitive.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley sued Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk for defamation after last year’s game, when Sterk went on the radio and accused her of promoting an racist and hostile atmosphere and added that MU’s players were cursed at and spit on. The game led to a number of ejections after a few players left the bench during an on-court skirmish.

On Monday there were no incidents, South Carolina led by 14 at halftime and scored 23 points off 16 MU turnovers for the game. Sophie Cunningham led Missouri with 24 points while Amber Smith added 16 and freshman Akira Levy added 12.

Officials seemed to call the game tighter than most, possibly to keep tensions from escalating between the two teams like in years passed. At halftime, Missouri had four players with a pair of fouls including Cunningham, fellow senior Cierra Porter and starting forward Hannah Schuchts. Missouri never led in the game.

The Gamecocks were led by Tyasha Harris and M. Herbert Harrigan, who each had 16 points.

The Tigers tough slate continues on Thursday when MU travels to No. 15 Kentucky. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. and the game will air on SEC Network.

Shortly before tipoff, Missouri announced that freshman forward Grace Berg would transfer.