Good news, bad news for No. 1 Houston

Houston still has a tight grip on No. 1 in the AP Top 25.

The Cougars received 52 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel in the poll released Monday to hold the top spot for the second straight week.

Uconn moved up a spot to No. 2 and had six firstplace votes to leapfrog No. 3 Purdue, which had four first-place votes. Tennessee and Arizona rounded out the top five.

Houston moved to No. 1 for the first time this season a week ago and won both of its games last week: a 6759 home win over Cincinnati and, thanks to Jamal Shead’s last-second shot, a win at Oklahoma 87-85.

Houston is still leading the country in Kenpom’s adjusted defensive efficiency despite giving up 85 points to the Sooners. The win allowed coach Kelvin Sampson to have a triumphant return to Norman, where he coached from 1994 to 2006.

The day wasn’t all good news for the Cougars, who lost 6-foot-7 freshman Jojo Tugler, one of top-ranked Houston’s best defenders, who broke a bone in his right foot. He will miss the remainder of the season, Sampson said.

It’s the third season-ending injury for the Cougars. Sophomore wing Terrance Arceneaux tore his Achilles tendon in a game against Texas A&M in December, and reserve guard Ramon Walker tore his meniscus in practice about a week ago.

Pacific fires coach

Pacific fired basketball coach Leonard Perry after the team went winless in the West Coast Conference regular season.

The school announced Monday that Perry would be reassigned to other duties at the school and associate coach Josh Newman will serve as interim head coach at the conference tournament.

Perry had a 29-65 record in three seasons for the Tigers. Pacific is 6-25 this season and lost all 16 conference games.

Women’s Top 25

Stanford and Iowa jumped up behind topranked South Carolina in The AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll as the top 10 got a shuffle on the eve of conference tournaments and Fairfield cracked the rankings for the first time in school history.

Stanford moved back up to No. 2 after a weekend sweep of Oregon State and Oregon. Iowa knocked off then-no. 2 Ohio State on Sunday behind Caitlin Clark, who became the NCAA Division I scoring leader during the game. The Big Ten champion Buckeyes fell to fourth.

USC jumped up to fifth, its highest ranking since 1994 when the team was fourth. Texas dropped three spots to sixth.

UCLA, LSU and Uconn were next. N.C. State moved up two places to 10th, passing ACC regular-season champion Virginia Tech, which fell six places to 11th.

Fairfield made its first appearance, coming in at No. 25. The Stags (26-1) have won 24 straight games and are the only team in the country besides undefeated South Carolina with one or fewer losses.

The Pac-12, which has been the most dominant conference so far this season, has three of the top seven teams and six ranked in the Top 25 overall.

The ACC is next with five teams. The Big 12 has four and the Big Ten three.