USC Women's Basketball

South Carolina women’s basketball remains No. 3 in AP Top 25

The USC Gamecocks show off their third straight SEC championship trophy.
The USC Gamecocks show off their third straight SEC championship trophy. tglantz@thestate.com

South Carolina remained No. 3 in the Associated Press Women’s Top 25 on Monday after beating then-No. 24 Tennessee to clinch its third straight SEC championship and also topping Georgia last week.

The Gamecocks (25-1, 13-0 SEC) were at Alabama Monday night.

USC is still behind unbeaten Connecticut and No. 2 Notre Dame. The Gamecocks and Fighting Irish have each lost to the Huskies.

The Gamecocks are at Ole Miss on Thursday and conclude the regular season by hosting LSU on Sunday.

USC was part of a history-making week for itself and opponents. The Gamecocks’ defeat of the Lady Vols began a 1-2 week for Tennessee, ending in a stunning loss at formerly league-worst LSU. The defeats dropped the Lady Vols out of the Top 25 for the first time since Feb. 17, 1985, a span of 565 weeks.

USC has already equaled Tennessee as one of the three SEC programs to win three straight regular-season championships. It is chasing Tennessee to become just the second league team to go 16-0 in league play.

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AP TOP 25

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 21, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking:

Record

Pts

Prv

1. UConn (32)

26-0

800

1

2. Notre Dame

25-1

756

2

3. South Carolina

25-1

746

3

4. Baylor

27-1

704

4

5. Ohio State

23-4

656

5

6. Maryland

25-3

623

6

7. Oregon State

24-3

608

7

8. Texas

24-1

581

8

9. Arizona State

24-4

563

9

10. Louisville

22-6

508

11

11. Texas A&M

20-7

463

12

12. Florida State

21-5

421

10

13. Stanford

22-6

409

15

14. UCLA

20-7

387

12

15. Kentucky

19-6

338

16

16. Mississippi State

22-6

319

14

17. Miami

22-5

258

18

18. Syracuse

22-6

241

23

19. DePaul

23-7

221

21

20. Michigan State

20-7

134

25

21. South Florida

19-7

131

19

22. Oklahoma State

19-7

94

17

23. Oklahoma

18-8

91

20

24. Missouri

21-6

76

25. Colorado State

24-1

58

Others receiving votes: Florida 55, BYU 50, West Virginia 42, Georgia 23, UTEP 14, Arkansas State 7, Oregon 7, Green Bay 5, Florida Gulf Coast 4, Duquesne 3, Tennessee 2, Washington 2

CLONINGER’S TOP 25

1. Connecticut

2. South Carolina

3. Notre Dame

4. Baylor

5. Oregon State

6. Maryland

7. Texas

8. Ohio State

9. Arizona State

10. Louisville

11. Texas A&M

12. Florida State

13. Stanford

14. UCLA

15. Mississippi State

16. Miami

17. Kentucky

18. South Florida

19. DePaul

20. Michigan State

21. Syracuse

22. Oklahoma State

23. Oklahoma

24. Florida

25. Colorado State

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "South Carolina women’s basketball remains No. 3 in AP Top 25."

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