South Carolina’s No. 1 run in women’s Top 25 hits 35 weeks

South Carolina survived one of its stiffest tests of the seasonto remain No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s college basketballpoll released Monday.

The Gamecocks (27-0) topped Mississippi in overtime on Sunday towin their 33rd consecutive game and secure the top spot in the pollfor a 35th consecutive week. That is the third-longest run atop thepoll, with UConn (51 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) having hadlonger streaks at No. 1. The Gamecocks broke a tie with UConn forthird place.

South Carolina received 27 of the 28 first-place votes from thenational media panel. It was the first time this season that theteam wasn’t a unanimous choice at No. 1.

Indiana got the other first place vote and stayed second in thepoll. The Hoosiers have won 14 consecutive games and are 9-0against AP Top 25 teams this season — the most wins against rankedopponents of any team in the country. The Hoosiers clinched atleast a share of their first Big Ten title since 1983 with Sunday’swin over Purdue.

“It’s nothing against South Carolina, but the Big Ten isincredibly strong this season and Indiana has played a tougherconference schedule,” voter Mitchell Northam said. “While theGamecocks needed OT to get by Ole Miss, the Hoosiers handily beatranked teams in Ohio State and Michigan this past week. I wanted toreward them for that. Indiana also has five wins against top 10teams this season, the most in the country, and hasn’t lost sinceGrace Berger has been healthy.”

Stanford, UConn and LSU round out the top five teams.

Iowa, which hosts Indiana on Sunday, was No. 6. The Hawkeyeswere followed by Maryland, Utah, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame. TheUtes dropped four places after falling to then-No. 18 Arizona. TheWildcats moved up four spots to 14th.

RE-ENTRY

Middle Tennessee and Illinois re-entered the poll tied at No.25. The Blue Raiders and Illini had spent some time in the AP Top25 before falling out. They replaced USC, which dropped games toStanford and Cal over the weekend.

STRUGGLING SEC

The conference has two of the top five teams in South Carolinaand LSU, but no other school is ranked. With three polls left inthe season, the SEC is in danger of not having at least three teamsranked in the final AP Top 25 for the first time since the 1980-81season, when the conference had only two.