| | Connecticut held the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press women's
basketball poll for the 15th straight week Monday and led a top six
that remained the same as last week.
There was considerable change among the final 19 places,
however, as 12 of those teams lost during the week and two
newcomers made the poll. Marquette gained its first ranking at No.
23. George Washington, ranked for one week in January, returned at
No. 25.
Kansas and Stanford dropped out.
Connecticut (22-1), which routed Miami and came from 11 points
down to win at Rutgers, received 31 of 44 first-place votes and
1,080 points from a national media panel.
Tennessee (21-3), which has won eight straight since a 27-point
loss at Georgia on Jan. 17, was second with four first-place votes
and 1,031 points. No. 3 Georgia (24-2) had nine first-place votes
and 1,029 points. The Lady Bulldogs have won 10 straight.
Louisiana Tech was fourth, Notre Dame fifth and Penn State
sixth. Then the changes began.
North Carolina State, which has won all three of its games since
center Summer Erb was sidelined by a broken foot, jumped four
places to seventh. Rutgers beat Providence before losing to UConn
and climbed two spots to eighth, LSU dropped two places to ninth
after losing to Alabama and Iowa State fell from eighth to 10th
after losing at Kansas State.
UC Santa Barbara moved up one place to 11th and Texas Tech fell
three places to 12th after losing on the road to Missouri. Then it
was Auburn, Duke, Arizona and Old Dominion, followed by Purdue,
Oklahoma, Boston College and Tulane.
Virginia, Mississippi State, Marquette, UCLA and George
Washington held the final five places.
Marquette (20-4) has won 11 of 12 since a 75-60 loss at Notre
Dame on Jan. 2 and is coming off road victories over Cincinnati and
Louisville. The Golden Eagles, who beat Tulane by 21 a week ago,
clinched the Conference USA American Division championship with the
win at Louisville.
They are the 131st team to be ranked in The AP poll, which began
in 1976.
George Washington (20-3) was ranked 24th the week of Jan. 17,
then fell out the next week after losing at Xavier. The Colonials
have won six in a row since and are 18-1 following a 2-2 start.
Kansas, 23rd last week, beat Texas but lost at Nebraska on
Sunday. The Jayhawks (17-6) had been ranked in all but one of the
previous polls this season.
Stanford (15-6) returned to the poll last week at No. 24 after
being out for a week. The Cardinal dropped out this time after
splitting on a road trip, losing to Oregon and beating Oregon
State.
Tulane went from 25th to 20th for the biggest jump in the poll.
The Green Wave bounced back from the loss to Marquette with
decisive victories over Houston and South Florida.
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