COLUMBIA, MO. • The No. 15 Missouri women's basketball team might have avoided a catastrophe. Leading scorer Sophie Cunningham's right knee injury was diagnosed as a sprain after she underwent an MRI on Tuesday, the team announced.
The junior guard is considered "day to day," which means she did not suffer a complete ligament tear as some might have feared when she went down in the fourth quarter of Sunday's win at Alabama.
The Tigers (13-1, 1-0 SEC) host Louisiana State (9-3, 1-0) on Thursday, then play their most anticipated home game of the year Sunday when No. 4 South Carolina (12-1, 1-0) visits Columbia for the first time since winning last year's national championship. Mizzou was the last team to beat the Gamecocks last season before they captured the national title.
It's uncertain if Cunningham will be available for either game. The preseason All-SEC selection and All-American candidate was helped off the court in Birmingham, Ala., and with 8:11 left to play. Cunningham is the SEC’s fifth-leading scorer at 18.2 points per game.
She leads the conference in free throw shooting (86.8 percent) and ranks third in field-goal percentage (57.7) and second in 3-point shooting percentage (50.0).