Mechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham was too sick to participate in pregame shootaround. Mississippi State was coming off handing Tennessee its worst-ever SEC loss. And the Tigers had never won before in Starkville, Mississippi, trailing the series 1-7 coming into Thursday night’s game.
So how did the Tigers pull off their 75-67 upset of the No. 5 Bulldogs? They hit 3-pointers (11 of 26) and held the Bulldogs to a very uncharacteristic 39.7 percent shooting from the field. It was Mississippi State’s first regular-season SEC loss since Feb. 26, 2017, when Tennessee won in Starkville.