Texas hooks No. 3 spot as other falter
Texas rose to its highest ranking in more than a year in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll Monday after another week of shakeups amongst the top teams.
The Longhorns moved up two spots to No. 3 after four of the top seven teams lost at least one game last week. Texas hadn’t been this high in the Top 25 since the school was also third on Nov. 14, 2022. Texas has won seven straight games and closes out the regular season this week against No. 20 Oklahoma and BYU. The Longhorns are a game behind the Sooners for first place in the Big 12.
South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 team, receiving all 35 votes from the national media panel, after routing Alabama and Kentucky. The Gamecocks clinched their third consecutive outright SEC regular-season championship and eighth in 11 years. They visit Arkansas on Thursday night before hosting Tennessee in the regular-season finale on Sunday.
Ohio State was second in the poll. The Buckeyes clinched a share of the Big Ten title with their 14th consecutive win on Sunday.
Stanford was fourth after splitting a pair of home games against Arizona and Arizona State. Despite the loss to the Wildcats, the Cardinal clinched at least a share of their 27th Pac12 regular-season championship.
Virginia Tech moved up three spots to fifth. The Hokies have won 10 consecutive games and earned at least a share of their first ACC regular-season title at 14-2.
Iowa, USC and UCLA followed the Hokies. LSU moved up four places to ninth and UConn climbed five spots to 10th.
FALLING WOLFPACK
N.C. State dropped six spots to 12th after losses to North Carolina and Duke. The Wolfpack had won eight of nine before the two defeats. Two losses separate second place and seventh place in the ACC standings as of Monday; Syracuse at 13-4 is in second and North Carolina and Duke, both 10-6, are in seventh. N.C. State hosts Syracuse on Thursday. The Orange are led by Dyaisha Fair, who moved into fifth on the NCAA career scoring list on Sunday, passing Brittney Griner.