Stanford still No. 1; Oregon State out

NEW YORK — Oregon State’s four-year run in the Top 25 ended Monday when the Beavers fell out of The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time since 2016.

The Beavers had the seventh-longest active streak, being ranked for 76 consecutive weeks dating to Dec. 19, 2016. Oregon State lost its lone game last week, falling to Washington State and dropping out of the poll from No. 21.

While the Beavers’ streak is over, Stanford remained No. 1 for the third consecutive week. Tara VanDerveer became the winningest coach in women’s basketball history, passing the late Pat Summitt, with her 1,099th victory. VanDerveer got her 1,100th victory on Saturday, beating Southern Cal. Stanford had its toughest game of the season on Monday, pulling away from 10th-ranked UCLA in the fourth quarter to win 61-49.

Stanford received 26 of 30 first-place votes from a media panel. Louisville, UConn, North Carolina State and South Carolina followed the Cardinal again in the poll. Connecticut holds the longest active streak of being ranked, with 515 consecutive Top 25 appearances.

Arizona, Baylor, Oregon, Texas A&M and UCLA round out the first 10 teams in the poll.

Kentucky lost its first game of the season, falling to then-No. 24 DePaul. The Wildcats dropped to No. 13 while the Blue Demons rose to 18th.

Michigan State replaced Oregon State in the poll, coming in at No. 25.

STEP UP THE COMPETITION

Baylor played three games in four days last week, winning by an average of 73 points, including consecutive 93-point victories, and will take a holiday break before visiting TCU on Jan. 2, followed by No. 3 UConn at home five days later.

“We’re going to flush these last three games because we’re going to play more talented teams,” coach Kim Mulkey said. “That’s not a knock on those teams. It’s just what we know when you get to conference how difficult it is. And then when you take the elite program that Connecticut is, we know what we face with those guys.”

ON BREAK

Second-ranked Louisville is still on pause because of the coronavirus. The Cardinals last played on Dec. 9 against Duke and will play the Blue Devils again on Dec. 31. They had games postponed against North Carolina, Florida State and Miami. The Cardinals weren’t the only Top 25 team on pause last week. No. 16 Ohio State and No. 17 Michigan also are on a break because of COVID-19 issues.