South Carolina a unanimous No. 1 in the women’s AP Top 25, Stanford and Oregon crack rankings

South Carolina was unanimously ranked No. 1 by The Associated Press Top 25 Women’s Basketball poll Monday after a pair of wins to kick off its repeat bid for the national championship, as Kansas State joined the top 10 and both Stanford and Oregon earned their first regular season rankings of the season.

The Gamecocks deserved a hard-fought game six-point win over Michigan in Las Vegas to open the season and then-No. 9 North Carolina State on Sunday by 14 points. The two wins ensured that the defending champion was unanimously selected from the 31-member national media panel. In the preseason pollNo. 2 UConn received two first-place votes and No. 3 USC received one.

The top eight teams in the rankings remained unchanged, with Texas and UCLA rounding out the top five. Notre Dame, LSU and Iowa State were next with Oklahoma ninth and Kansas State 10th. NC State dropped to 13th.

Former Pac-12 schools Stanford and Oregon entered the rankings after impressive starts to their seasons. The No. 24 Cardinal, under new coach Kate Paye, went 3-0 last week and won by an average of 41 points. Since 2000 until this season, they have been in the preseason poll every year.

The No. 25 Ducks enter the poll based on a home win by two points then then-no. 12 Baylor. The win snapped a 13-game losing streak to ranked opponents for Oregon. The Bears dropped to 17th.

Further up

Maryland climbed seven spots to No. 11 after an impressive performance 85-80 win then then-no. 11 duke. This was the Terrapins’ first game against the Blue Devils since defeating their former ACC rival, 65-55, in the Sweet 16 in 2015. The win came nearly a year after the Terrapins saw their victory 13 year version in the poll last season. Duke fell to 16th.

Falling out

Creighton, Indiana and Florida State all fell out of the poll after early losses. The Bluejays lost at South Dakota State, the Hoosiers at home against Harvard and the Seminoles at Illinois. The Illini entered the poll at No. 23.

Binding greatness

UConn coach Geno Auriemma is one win behind retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer for the most wins of all time with 1,216. He could commit VanDerveer when the Huskies play No. 15 North Carolina on Friday night. The potential record victory could come at home against FDU on November 20. VanDerveer named Stanford’s court after her on Sunday.

Game of the week

No. 16 Duke at South Dakota State, Sunday. Coach Kara Lawson is challenging her team early with three of the Blue Devils’ first four games on the schedule. Duke opened at Liberty before playing at Maryland.

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