Sophie Cunningham breaks scoring record but Mizzou women lose in SEC semifinals

Sophie Cunningham furthered her case as the greatest women’s basketball player in Mizzou history as she became the program’s career leading scorer Saturday.

That was about as far as the good news went for MU.

Top-seeded Mississippi State beat the Tigers 71-56 in the SEC Tournament semifinals in Greenville, S.C. Mississippi State will face either Texas A&M or Arkansas for the title on Sunday.

Cunningham scored 33 of MU’s 56 points, with the Tigers’ second-leading scorer only having six points. Cunningham, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, pass Joni Davis’ mark of 2,127 points on a baseline jumper early in the first quarter.

“It’s cool,” Cunningham said. “It’s not just me getting that record. My team has gotten me the ball, gotten me open. My coaches put me in great positions to get this record. I worked my tail off for it. It was never actually a goal of mine until I got close and people were telling me about it. That’s definitely a team effort.”

Missouri (23-10) trailed 16-14 at the end of the first quarter and stayed close to the Bulldogs (29-2) until they closed the first half on a 12-2 run and led by 13 at halftime.

The Tigers cut the deficit to five in the second half but could never tie the score. On defense, MU had no answer for Bulldogs 6-foot-7 center Teaira McCowan, who finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds. MU also had 17 turnovers, which led to 14 Mississippi State points.

With its SEC Tournament run over, Missouri will wait nine days until Selection Monday to learn its NCAA Tournament fate. A win would have put MU in the mix to host the first two rounds of the tournament, but the Tigers are now almost certainly heading on the road.

ESPN bracketologist had MU as a No. 5 seed in his updated projections Saturday, heading to Ames to play Princeton in Iowa State’s sub-regional. Mizzou coach Robin Pingeton was an assistant coach for three years at Iowa State under current coach Bill Fennelly.

This story was originally published March 9, 2019 at 6:44 PM with the headline "Sophie Cunningham breaks scoring record but Mizzou women lose in SEC semifinals."