Women’s college basketball rankings: Only one undefeated team remains as top-25 rankings shift

South Carolina ends LSU’s bid for perfection, Maryland suffers key injuries and more in week 12

There are six weeks remaining in the NCAA women’s basketball regular season and while a few teams are building a case for conference trophies, it’s still a toss-up across the power conferences. In week 12, eight games ended with either an unranked or lower ranked team defeating a higher ranked opponent.

That’s caused changes across the weekly rankings, including a three-loss week for the Maryland Terrapins and the Gamecocks making their case to regain the No. 1 overall ranking despite UCLA remaining undefeated.

Here are the rankings this week, followed by the stories that shaped it:

AP top 25 women’s college basketball rankings:

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. USC
5. Texas
6. UConn
7. LSU
8. Ohio State
9. TCU
10. Duke
11. Kansas State
12. Kentucky
13. Oklahoma
14. Maryland
15. North Carolina
16. Michigan State
17. NC State
18. Tennessee
19. Cal
20. Georgia Tech
21. West Virginia
22. Alabama
23. Vanderbilt
24. Oklahoma State
25. Florida State

Others receiving votes: Michigan 30, Nebraska 26, Minnesota 25, Creighton 21, Baylor 12, Utah 11, Mississippi 8, Harvard 7, South Dakota St. 2.

Injuries Derail Maryland

The Maryland Terrapins entered a Jan. 8 battle with the No. 4 USC Trojans on a roll, winning their first 14 games of the season. While Maryland fell to guard JuJu Watkins and the Trojans, the narrow 79-74 defeat showed that the then No. 8 Terrapins are a team that can compete with the top programs in the nation.

Last week, a treacherous stretch featuring six games against seven ranked opponents continued, but it didn’t include guard Bri McDaniel. The junior guard who averaged 10.6 points per game tore her ACL, the program announced on Monday. That requires McDaniel to miss the rest of this season and likely a chunk of next season.

McDaniel predominantly came off the bench this season with the addition of junior guard Kaylene Smikle from the transfer portal, but McDaniel was the heart of the Terrapins. When on the floor, averaging 21.6 minutes per game, McDaniel never gave up on plays and brought Maryland’s intensity to another level.

That meant Maryland was without her services against No. 7 Texas, No. 12 Ohio State and No. 1 UCLA, in the most difficult week for any team in the nation so far this season. Things got worse on Monday, against the Longhorns at the Coretta Scott King Classic when guard and senior leader Shyanne Sellers, who averages 14.2 points, 4.7 assist and 4.2 rebounds per game, suffered a contact injury on her right knee.

Photo by Emmanuel Durojaiye/Emmanuel Durojaiye

The injury took Sellers out for the 89-51 loss to Texas and games against Ohio State on Thursday and Sunday’s game against UCLA. Both resulted in losses for the Terps, with the Buckeyes coming back from 15 points down to win and a career high 33 points for UCLA center Lauren Betts in UCLA’s 82-67 win.

“They’ve all been through adversity in their careers and they know how to ride the ups and downs of a long season,” said Maryland head coach Brenda Frese. “So I know they’ll stay focused and continue to control what they can control.”

Maryland gets a little bit of a break now, playing two ranked teams in their last nine games of the regular season. However, it’s unclear when that will include Sellers, the All-Big Ten selection who is listed as day-to-day with a knee sprain. Regardless, Maryland is likely a tournament team and if Sellers gets healthy for the postseason, the Terrapins showed the nation they are a team to be reckoned with, when healthy.

Gamecocks and Tigers’ Delayed Clash

The No. 2 South Carolina Gamecocks and No. 5 LSU Tigers always play entertaining matchups, but this season’s edition was delayed a day because of Winter Storm Enzo. So, on Friday afternoon, the Gamecocks and Tigers played the lone ranked game of the day, and it lived up to the expectations.

Entering Friday, head coach Kim Mulkey’s LSU side was one of two undefeated teams in the nation, pulling off late wins against Stanford and a ranked Tennessee side over the previous weeks of the season. However, South Carolina is another challenge completely.

LSU started off the aggressors, playing strong on the offensive glass in the first quarter, grabbing seven offensive boards and scoring eight second chance points off the additional possessions. Forward Aneesah Morrow and guard Flau’Jae Johnson each scored six points to start the game and the Tigers led 22-21 entering the second quarter.

That’s when South Carolina clamped down on defense and pulled away. The Gamecocks held LSU to eight points in the second quarter on 3-of-20 shooting. While South Carolina’s scoring wasn’t much better, adding 12 points in the period behind six points from MiLaysia Fulwiley, it was enough to build up a lead that the Gamecocks wouldn’t relinquish.

Despite 15 points and 16 rebounds from Morrow and 13 for Johnson, the Gamecocks outlasted the Tigers for their 17th consecutive win in the rivalry, defeating LSU 66-56. It’s the fifth loss to the Gamecocks in the Mulkey era, only the second time South Carolina beat LSU in the past four seasons by a margin of at least 10 points.

What impressed the most about South Carolina’s win was what the team did off the ball. Defensively, the Gamecocks had 13 steals and 11 blocks, turning defense into offense with 22 points off turnovers.

Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images

“I think we’re pretty locked in. I think they really are connected. They understand that we’re pretty good. They do. They understand that, and they understand why we’re good. And that is our gap defense is pretty good, our scramble out when teams get ahead of the possession, and then we just got to fight to just go get the basketball,” said head coach Dawn Staley. “Tonight, the blocked shots were impressive. Just our grit, was great. You need to have all those things to be the team like LSU.”

If the mantra of “defense wins championships” is indeed true, South Carolina is setting themselves up for potentially a back-to-back title run.

Nation’s Top Scorer Upsets UNC

Sunday in Chapel Hill, the unranked Florida State Seminoles faced the No. 13 North Carolina Tar Heels in the game of the day. It didn’t have the honor because of rankings or star power — it earned the title.

In a game that did feature its own stars, the real reason this game couldn’t be turned off is because of how much each team put into the battle. This North Carolina-Florida State game featured 20 lead changes.

The Seminoles had their way in the first quarter, building an eight-point lead that the Tar Heels erased in the second quarter behind a seven-point run. Absent from some of the quarter was Florida State’s Taniya Latson, the nation’s top scorer who went to the bench with foul trouble.

Latson scored two points in the second quarter as UNC walked into the locker room up one point at the break. At halftime, Latson had eight points in 15 minutes and made up for her lack of offensive presence in the second half.

That’s when Latson went off, scoring a team-high 17 points in the second half in 18 minutes, but no two points were as important as the last two of the game. With four seconds remaining, North Carolina guard Reniya Kelly tied the game at 84-84, which gave the Seminoles 3.5 seconds on the clock to try and find a game-winning shot.

Florida State inbounded the ball to Latson and the guard got through a double-team, around another defender and than altered her shot midair against a fourth Tar Heel to hit arguably the best shot of the NCAA season to date.

Despite having five players in double-figures, UNC fell 86-84 for their third straight defeat to the Seminoles, this time an especially difficult upset to take on their home court.

For the Seminoles, who now sit at 6-2 in ACC play, it puts them in the conversation near the top of the conference and helps build their resume for March Madness. The Seminoles still play four of the top five teams in the conference, including the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who currently occupy the top spot in the power conference.

Other Stories of the Week

• Freshman guard Dani Carnegie returned from a hamstring injury to score 29 points for No. 18 Georgia Tech in a 75-62 win over Virginia. However, the Yellow Jackets fell to the No. 14 Duke Blue Devils on Sunday 55-50, behind a strong defensive performance by head coach Kara Lawson’s Duke program.
• No. 9 TCU and No. 11 Kentucky each lost to unranked teams this week but bounced back on Sunday. The Horned Frogs defeated No. 25 Baylor and the Wildcats defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks.
• In Ann Arbor, the No. 24 Michigan Wolverines and No. 21 Michigan State Spartans played their first of two in-state rivalry matchups this season. The Spartans took the first matchup in a resounding 88-58 win where Michigan State beat the Wolverines in the paint 44-24.