Mizzou Women upset #5 Mississippi State

The Missouri women's basketball season hasn’t been the smoothest of sailing at times, they’ve largely hovered just outside the top 25, and sitting at 18-7 and 7-4 in league play they probably weren’t in danger of missing the NCAA tournament. Still, nabbing a marquee win on the road against a top five team is always a big story line.

Thursday night the Mizzou women took down one of the premier basketball programs in the Mississippi State Bulldogs 75-67, and they did so on a night when star Senior Sophie Cunningham eclipsed the 2,000 point barrier. I don’t want to understate how big this win is... Mississippi State has played for the National Championship two years in a row and were 22-1 coming into the game. Their lone loss coming on the road to Oregon. They were 10-0 in conference play and were steamrolling the conference. Only Georgia had played them within 10 points and no other team came within 15 with five of those games coming by more than 20.

But not tonight.

Cunningham finished with 24 points and Missouri shot a stellar 42.3% from 3-point range in their upset of the Bulldogs. But it was Missouri’s interior defense which caused MSU fits as they struggled to shoot inside the arc. Teaira McCowan came into the game as the Bulldogs lead scorer at 17.2 ppg and she was clamped down as she struggled to find room and didn’t even attempt a 3FGA.

The win moves Missouri to 19-7 and 8-4 in league play. HUGE win for the ladies. Mizzou returns home for a Sunday game against Tennessee at 4 pm.