UT Lady Vols can't overcome Missouri, Sophie Cunningham

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Tennessee couldn't finish its comeback with a victory Sunday afternoon. Sophie Cunningham wouldn't allow it.

Missouri's star guard broke a fourth-quarter tie with a 3-pointer and scored nine consecutive points. They were part of her 32-point effort in the Tigers' 77-73 SEC women's basketball victory over Tennessee before a Mizzou Arena record crowd of 11,092.

Lady Vols freshman Rennia Davis was fouled on a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds left and Tennessee trailing by three points. After a Missouri timeout, Davis missed the first of three free throws. She also missed the third attempt intentionally, but UT couldn't grab the rebound.

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Cunningham referenced the program's evolution, which was reflected by the turnout, in considering her motivation for the stretch run.

"I just wanted to win for our seniors," she said. "They've never beaten Tennessee. They came in with maybe 200 people in the stands."

Cunningham was 7 for 8 from the free throw line in the final quarter and No. 13 Missouri (22-5, 10-4 SEC) was 12 for 14.

"Keeping them off the free throw line at the end would've been huge," Tennessee center Mercedes Russell said.

For No. 11 Tennessee (21-6, 9-5), which erased a 15-point first half deficit, the cruel irony of the free throw situation was Davis being at the line with a chance to tie.

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"The kid's crying," UT coach Holly Warlick said afterward. "That did not cost us the ball game. That kid's hurting and I hate for her to hurt."

Said teammate Jaime Nared: "She's going to have a lot more opportunities. In warmups, she almost dunked it. It's tough but you can get it back. It's not the end of the world."     

Quick recovery

Warlick didn't obsess over the Lady Vols' slow start, considering how they recovered.   

After trailing 30-15, their rally began in unlikely fashion during the second quarter. With four reserves - Cheridene Green, Kortney Dunbar, Anastasia Hayes and Kasi Kushkituah - on the floor and some hot 3-point shooting, the Lady Vols pulled within 40-36 before halftime.

After a 4 for 17 shooting start, the Lady Vols shot 51.1 percent from the floor (23 for 45) for the game's duration. Overall, they were 8 for 15 (53.3 percent) on 3-pointers.

UT's rally was fueled after halftime by a fullcourt press, which factored into 12 Missouri turnovers in the second half. Tennessee led four different times in the third quarter. Along with her team-high 25 points, Nared had four steals.

"If we would've played with that effort against Alabama, we would've had a different result," said Warlick, recalling Thursday's 72-63 loss to the Crimson Tide.

'Meet and greet' with Russell

Russell finished with 10 points, six points shy of her per-game average. Missouri's Cierra Porter played the biggest defensive role against Russell, although not by design.

"It wasn't necessarily supposed to be one on one," said Porter, a 6-foot-4 junior. "It worked out."

Russell was 0 for 4 from the floor with zero points in the first half. Two of the misses came on jump hooks that were shot farther from the basket than Russell's preference.

"We felt like, as much as we could, to really meet her and greet her early and not let her get to that second hash mark," Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. "We wanted to dig in as much as we could. We weren't going to surround her they way we did (South Carolina's) A'ja Wilson but we wanted to help when we could."    

Up Next

Tennessee stays on the road with a game at Florida on Thursday.

What a difference a week and consecutive losses make. After challenging for second place, Tennessee now faces the possibility of finishing seventh in the conference regular season standings.

"You've got to play hard," Warlick said. "Your talent doesn't do any good if you don't play hard. We're talented. When we play hard, we're hard to beat."