WNBA Phoenix Mercury

Mercury Re-Signs Sophie Cunningham

Published on February 1, 2022 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Phoenix Mercury News Release


PHOENIX - The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury have re-signed wing Sophie Cunningham, the team announced today.

Mercury General Manager Jim Pitman: "Sophie brings all the intangibles you want in a player - energy, hustle, toughness, grit. We would not have won our first-round playoff game without her scoring, we would not have played so well down the stretch of the regular season and playoffs without her shooting, and re-signing her was a priority for us. She wants to be in Phoenix and she will be an important piece this season in our quest to return to the Finals and win another championship."

Originally the 13th overall pick of the 2019 WNBA Draft by the Mercury, Cunningham has played her three professional seasons has a key contributor and spot-starter for Phoenix. She is coming off a 2021 campaign in which she averaging career highs in scoring (5.6), rebounding (2.0), and assists (1.1) while shooting a career-best 43.7 percent from the field and a career-high 41.0 percent from three-point range. Cunningham ranked ninth in the WNBA in three-point shooting overall, thanks to a scorching post-Olympics in which she shot 45.2 percent from long range.

While the Mizzou product was a key role-player down the stretch of the season and in the playoffs the best game of her career came on the most important stage in Game 1 of the playoffs in a single-elimination contest against the New York Liberty. Filling in for an injured Diana Taurasi, Cunningham scored 21 points and made six threes in a come-from-behind victory that made possible the Mercury's eventual run to the WNBA Finals. She became just the third player in league postseason history to score at least 20 points and make at least six threes on 85 percent or better shooting, joining legends Lauren Jackson (2004) and Deanna Nolan (2003).

Cunningham is currently playing in France.

Led by the 2021 Olympic gold-medal winning trio of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith, and coming off the club's fifth WNBA Finals appearance in franchise history, the three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury return to Footprint Center this summer, tipping off the season with Fry's Food Stores Opening Night on Friday, May 6, against the Las Vegas Aces.

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