University of Missouri
4-0
Wake Forest
3-1
Sophie Cunningham Sets School Record With 42 Points in 94-81 @MizzouWBB Victory Over Wake Forest
11/23/2015 12:14:00 AM | Women's Basketball
True freshman breaks scoring record that has stood nearly 30 years in fourth career game
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Freshman guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) established a new single-game school record with 42 points in Mizzou's (4-0) 94-81 victory over Wake Forest (3-1) at Mizzou Arena on Sunday evening. Cunningham went 13-for-18 from the field and 6-for-8 from 3-point range in 33 minutes. She added eight rebounds, four assists and three steals in her fourth career game.
The Tigers shot 43 percent (26-for-61) from the floor, 42 percent (11-for-26) from beyond the arc and 78 percent (31-for-40) from the free throw line. Mizzou scored 20 points off of 18 forced turnovers.
"I think our girls did a great job," head coach Robin Pingeton said. "I thought they came out with a ton of focus. Overall, just a great performance and gritty, great toughness. [There was] great energy from our team. I'm really happy for them and proud of them.
"Obviously, a special night for Sophie. It was just a tremendous night and she is a fierce competitor."
Cunningham scored 25 points in the first half, going 9-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 from long range during the first 20 minutes. In the second quarter alone, she scored 14 points. She broke the previous scoring record of 41 points by Renee Kelly that has stood since Jan. 25, 1986 vs. Oklahoma at the Hearnes Center.
The 42 points by Cunningham are the most in the SEC this season. She leads the conference in scoring with 21.5 points per game.
Junior guard Sierra Michaelis (Mercer, Mo.) added a season-high 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting and a 4-for-8 mark from 3-point range. She has drained seven triples over the last two contests. Michaelis scored 13 points in the first quarter, connecting three times from beyond the arc.
Freshman forward Cierra Porter (Columbia, Mo.) established new season-highs with 14 points and five assists to go along with three rebounds and a blocked in 22 reserve minutes. Junior forward Jordan Frericks (Quincy, Ill.) added nine points and 12 rebounds (six offensive) with three blocks, two steals and an assist.
Mizzou returns to play on Tuesday evening with a 7 p.m. CT tipoff vs. SIU Edwardsville at Mizzou Arena.
For all the latest on Mizzou Women's Basketball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com. You can also keep up on social media by liking us on Facebook (Mizzou Women's Basketball) and following us on Twitter and Instagram (@MizzouWBB).
POSTGAME QUOTES
Mizzou head coach Robin Pingeton
Opening Statement…
"I appreciate you guys coming out. Obviously it was a big game for us. I think Wake Forest has got a nice squad. I was a little concerned going into this game. The last two days haven't been quite where we wanted to see them from the coaching staff perspective, but proud of our resiliency. I think our girls did a great job in the locker room just talking about how we have to let go of the last two days. We've got to embrace today; it's a new opportunity. I thought they came out with a ton of focus. Great focus in our shoot around and it carried over into the game tonight. Obviously, a special night for Sophie [Cunningham]. Pretty exciting to think she did all that on a bad ankle. It was just a tremendous night and she is a fierce competitor. I think Sierra Michaelis was key for us out of the gates, really started off on a great note. I thought Jordan Frericks did a lot of great things for us inside, but Cierra Porter… You could go up and down the roster. I thought from the free throw line we did a lot of what we wanted to do. Overall, just a great performance and gritty, great toughness. Great energy from our team. I'm really happy for them and proud of them."
On whether she has coached players that can make shots like the last-second step-back three that Sophie Cunningham made at the end of the first quarter…
"Yeah, I think Bri Kulas did a little bit. I think you've seen Maddie Stock knock down some of those shots. Obviously, tonight Sophie was really feeling it. She's got a high basketball IQ. She really does, she's got a high basketball IQ. She's so versatile. There's so many things she can do. Is 3-point shooting her strength? No, but she's good enough that you've got to respect her from there. I think she's a gamer. She wants the ball in her hands. She's not afraid to take tough shots. She's a fierce competitor."
On whether she was aware that Cunningham was going to break the record…
"It didn't even cross my mind until, I think, it was that last 2-minute mark where one of the assistants came up and said she was two points away from breaking the school record. No, I really don't look at personal points much throughout the flow of the game. It didn't surprise me when I looked up. I don't know if I was thinking 42, but I knew that she had a handful of points. What a great accomplishment for her, and [she's] just pretty humble about it. She's the first one, obviously, to give credit to her teammates."
On Jordan Frericks' performance…
"I think the thing I'm most proud of with her is just the maturity that I saw on the court. She didn't seem frazzled, she didn't seem frustrated. I just thought she handled herself really, really well. It was obviously a physical game. Tough offensive night for her, which, if I'm guarding our team, I'm probably guarding us inside-out. We just haven't shot the three ball particularly well yet this year. I know we've got a lot of kids that can shoot it. Maddie and Morgan Stock, those two kids won us some ball games last year and they didn't even get a lot of minutes. We've got the kids that can shoot it, I just don't think we've done it real well this year, nor have we needed to rely on the three-ball. I think it was awfully physical inside. For her to keep her composure and be such a factor defensively for us, I think it's a great sign of maturity and great leadership. I thought she battled. It was a very physical game inside both ways."
On whether rebounding was a concern…
"Absolutely. At halftime I told our players "we've got to win the war." We might not win every battle, but we've got to win the war to give us a chance because I think they are a tremendous offensive rebounding team. From their point guard to their center, they're relentless. If you can secure a rebound and move it up to push in transition, you're going to have some opportunities like we did in the first half because they crash so hard offensively. They went on a couple of runs there. I think, if I recall correctly, in the second half there were three possessions in a row where they got second chance opportunities and that's what really kept them in striking distance."
On whether Sophie Cunningham has exceeded expectations…
"Sophie, coming in we knew she was a pretty special player, just a fierce competitor. She's a kid that wants to be a trailblazer. She takes great pride in representing the University of Missouri. Her family has such strong ties. I think coming in we felt like she was going to make a pretty big impact immediately and she's done just that."
On Sophie Cunningham's defensive effort against Ariel Stephenson…
"I thought it was huge. The girls were kind of silly up here tonight, obviously pretty excited about the win, but as we made adjustments, and we did make adjustments, the girls got done what we always try to do on some of their 3-point shooters. A couple of them got loose and we tried to tighten up on them, just get a hand in the pocket and one comes in and hits a couple of threes on us, that was definitely not in the scouting report. I think as we went through the flow of the game we needed the adjustments we needed to make. I thought Sophie and her team did a really good job on [Stephenson]. She's a special player. Watching film on her, she's among… So fast. Her production tonight I thought was key."
On the team's chemistry…
"Every year is a little unique and different. It's something we spend a lot of time on as a staff. We don't take that culture for granted. You graduate a couple of players, you bring in a couple of new players, and you can't just assume that you're going to pick up where you left off in the previous year. We talk a lot about doing things that are abnormal and really putting the front of the jersey into everything that we do. But it is hard. It is really, really hard. I think the nature of people, we're pretty selfish-driven and we live in a microwave society of, 'What can you do for me lately?' We're asking our girls to do something that is not normal and we spend a lot of time talking about it. I do believe that five, 10 years from now when they look back, it's going to be so much bigger than if you started or didn't start or how many minutes they played. I think for us to really do what we, to live up to our potential this year, we've got to stay focused on the front of that jersey. It's hard. It's hard when you don't get into the game or when you're a starter like Michelle [Hudyn] and you don't get in the second half. People are in tough, tough positions. We don't avoid talking about it. We talk about it. I think it speaks volumes about the kind of girls we have in this program. [They are] high-character, high-integrity [people] that are really willing to put the front of the jersey in front of everything they do.
On the team's up-tempo style this season…
I think as you build a program you try to recruit kids that fit your style of play. We are an up-tempo team. Last year I don't know if we had the depth to play as up-tempo as we wanted to. I think this year we've got the players to play at a quicker pace. What changes now – it's what John Wooden always talked about – play quick but not in a hurry. Some days we play in a hurry. Tonight, I thought we did a much better job than we did against Wichita State. Productivity, turnovers… We'd still like to keep it to 12 and under, but you're going to have turnovers when you try to push the tempo the way we do."
Mizzou freshman guard Sophie Cunningham
On breaking the single-game scoring record so early in her career…
"Honestly, it's an awesome accomplishment. I didn't even really know that I did that, but it's really not that much. I was just trying to get the win and my teammates did a great job of getting me the ball when I needed it, so props to them."
On if the transition to the college game has been easy…
"I wouldn't really call it easy. Come to our practice, please. [laughter] That's what hard work gets you. It's not just me. It's not 1-vs.-5, it's 5-vs.-5. Like I said, our upperclassmen have prepared us freshmen lowerclassmen what you need to do to be successful on the court, and so you just work hard and listen to the upperclassmen, and that's what you're going to get."
On whether she expected to make the buzzer-beating step-back 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter…
"Honestly, I didn't even know, I was trying to put the shot up and it went in. If you saw my reaction, I was surprised it went in and then I kind of got excited, but I mean it's just lucky, I guess."
On how the team was able to be successful on defense…
Trusting the coaches. They said that twenty-five [Ariel Stephenson] is their best shooter and she started to hit a couple, but we adjusted. We just wanted to make sure that she didn't go off tonight. Their post were just powerful, so we wanted to make sure that they didn't have easy layups as well. You've just got to focus and stick with the game plan.
On when she was informed that she'd broken the single-game scoring record…
"After [the game]. I didn't even know there was a record, I didn't know that was a thing."
On celebrating with the fans after the game…
"I think it's so, so important, if people are coming out in our community that we need to try to just give back to them. The crowd was crazy tonight, I thought. I thought it was pretty awesome. So you just want to thank them. They got up for us and they got excited. That's the kind of crowd we want. If we keep sticking with the game plan, taking it one game at a time, hopefully we can get this pretty packed."
Mizzou redshirt junior guard Lindsey Cunningham
On the team's defensive effort in the game…
"Our game plan, they score a lot of their points in the paint and our coaches prepared us with an awesome game plan and there were times where they were hitting a few threes but they were telling us we should trust the game plan, and that was to guard inside out. They've got some really powerful girls inside and we guarded them really, really well. When they do go on those runs, you just have to trust the game plan that our coaches put out for us."
On whether it was difficult to stick to the game plan when Wake Forest was hitting three-point shots…
"Yeah. We stick to it and just look over at the coaches. They tell us when, or if, we maybe need to turn it up a little bit on a few kids but we're just listening to them the whole time they've got it. They know what we need to do."
On the team drawing so many charges on defense…
"Our focus tonight really was defense. Obviously, we had some great offensive nights for a few kids but defense was, I think, on our minds the most. We knew they were going to be going off one foot, they're super athletic so we knew if you sacrifice your body we'd be getting a few calls. I think, not just myself but everyone that was able to do that shows their toughness and grit, and their willingness to sacrifice for this team."
On whether she is surprised at the level of Sophie's early success…
"I think she hit it right on the head. She sets goals for herself and she works super hard. She never goes out there and thinks, 'I want twenty points, I want 42 points.' That's never her mind. I think she's an awesome team player. She's put in the work and she's got the right mindset. I think it's really cool. It's a great accomplishment for her and for our entire program as a whole."
Mizzou junior guard Sierra Michaelis
On how she was able to get open for her shots…
"I feel like they were really trying to face guard Sophie [Cunningham], [Ariel Stephenson] was guarding Sophie. It just opens up a lot of other things for the 2-guard and Maddie [Stock] was open a few times and hit a few of them, too. Just like Sophie, really cutting hard. [With Wake Forest] really focusing on Sophie, it opened up a lot for the other guards."
On whether getting to the free throw line was part of the game plan…
"That definitely was. On our scouting report it said "attack, attack, attack," so we followed the scouting report. We trust our coaches."
