Stanford women rise to No. 3 spot
Coming off a road sweep of the Arizona schools, Tara VanDerveer’s Stanford Cardinal moved from No. 6 to No. 3 in the Associated Press poll released Monday.
Stanford (24-3, 12-2 Pac-12) dusted then-No. 17 Arizona 84-60 on Thursday night and then pounded Arizona State 96-64 on Sunday afternoon. The Cardinal will host No. 25 USC on Friday evening.
South Carolina earned the No. 1 ranking for the 34th consecutive week. That is tied for the thirdlongest run atop the poll with UConn. Only the Huskies (51 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) have had longer streaks at No. 1.
The Gamecocks (25-0), who were again a unanimous choice from the 28member national media panel, routed then-No. 3 LSU 88-64 on Sunday in a matchup of previously unbeaten teams. The Tigers fell to fifth.
Indiana was No. 2 and Utah was No. 4. It’s the best ranking in school history for the Utes, who moved up three places this week. The Cardinal and Utah (22-2, 12-2) are tied atop the Pac-12; they meet in Salt Lake City on Feb. 25.
Also on Monday, Stanford center Lauren Betts was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week. She had a combined 25 points on 12-for-15 shooting from the floor in the Cardinal’s two wins in Arizona.
WCC honors Heal again:
For the fourth straight week and the 10th time this season, Santa Clara guard Tess Heal has been named the WCC Freshman of the Week. The Melbourne, Australia, native scored a personalhigh 29 points in a loss at Pacific and 20 in a loss at St. Mary’s. — Steve Kroner #2 Indiana 83, #13 Ohio
State 59: Mackenzie Holmes scored a careerhigh 33 points and Sara Scalia made six 3-pointers as the visiting Hoosiers extended their winning streak to 12 games. Indiana (24-1, 14-1 Big Ten) shot 74% in the first half and didn’t look back, pulling away from Ohio State (21-5, 10-5) after the score knotted 6-6.
#22 Iowa State 66, #17 Texas 61: Ashley Joens scored 24 points, Emily Ryan had 12 points and eight assists and the host Cyclones snapped a threegame skid. Lexi Donarski had 11 points and Fritz scored 10 for Iowa State (16-7, 8-5 Big 12). Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda added 10 points for Texas (20-7, 11-3).
MEN St. Mary’s drops to No. 17 in AP poll
Randy Bennett’s St. Mary’s Gaels dropped two spots to No. 17 in the AP poll released Monday.
The Gaels (22-5, 11-1 WCC) had won 12 in a row before losing 78-74 in overtime at Loyola Marymount on Thursday night. They rebounded to knock off host Portland 81-64 on Saturday. Senior guard Logan Johnson scored a combined 65 points in the two games.
St. Mary’s plays at San Diego on Thursday night before returning to Moraga to meet BYU on Saturday evening. — Steve Kroner #15 Miami 80, North Carolina 72: Jordan Miller had 24 points and 11 rebounds as the visiting Hurricanes took control after halftime then had to hold off a late rally to beat the Tar Heels. Nijel Pack added 23 points for Miami (21-5, 12-4 ACC). The Tar Heels (16-10, 8-7) trailed by 11 in the final 2½ minutes before making a comeback that fell short.
New top dog: Alabama is the new No. 1, rising to the top spot for the first time in 20 years. Purdue’s loss to Northwestern last week caused a jumble at the top of the AP Top 25 and that helped the Crimson Tide.