UNLV women ranked for first time in 29 years; South Carolina No. 1

UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque was 4 years old the last time theLady Rebels were ranked in The Associated Press Top 25 women’sbasketball poll.

Now the Las Vegas native has the team back in the Top 25 for thefirst time since 1994: UNLV entered the poll at No. 23 onMonday.

“Obviously it means a lot. When I took the job I had a vision ofwhat this place could be and what it once was,” La Rocque said.“That’s what I remember and I’m trying to put the pieces togetherto make that come to fruition. This is one of the small milestonesthat gives you a little bit of joy and you know that you’re doingsome things right.”

South Carolina earned the No. 1 ranking for the 34th consecutiveweek. That is tied for the third-longest run atop the poll withUConn. Only the Huskies (51 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) have hadlonger streaks at No. 1.

The Gamecocks (25-0), who were again a unanimous choice from the28-member national media panel, routed then-No. 3 LSU on Sunday ina showdown of unbeaten teams. The Tigers fell to fifth.

Indiana, Stanford and Utah were behind South Carolina. It’s thebest ranking in school history for the Utes, who moved up threeplaces this week.

UConn dropped two spots to sixth after falling at Marquette,giving the Huskies their first losing streak in 30 years. Iowa felltwo places to seventh after losing to Indiana.

Maryland, Duke and Notre Dame rounded out the top 10.

UNLV (24-2) has won 15 straight games, second to only SouthCarolina for the longest streak in the country. It is the team’sbest start since the 1989-90 team went 28-3.

“It’s cool. If you look at our roster, the two best players arefrom Vegas,” said La Rocque, who played at Stanford. “There’s somegood karma that we got working.”

USC joined the Lady Rebels in the Top 25, entering the poll atNo. 25. It’s the first time since 2016 that the Trojans are ranked.They visit Stanford on Friday night.

South Florida and N.C. State fell out of the poll.

STREAK BUSTED

North Carolina State is not ranked for the first time since Feb.5, 2018. The Wolfpack had been ranked for 96 consecutive weeks,which had been the fifth-longest active streak behind UConn,Maryland, South Carolina and Stanford.

CRUISING WILDCATS

Buoyed by star Maddy Siegrist, Villanova continues to climb upthe AP Top 25. Siegrist scored a Big East-record 50 points in a winover Seton Hall on Saturday to become the conference’s all-timeleading scorer. With 1,550 conference regular-season points,Siegrist surpassed former Boston College standout Sarah Behn’s(1989-93) 1,546 points. Siegrist has the Wildcats at No. 14, theschool’s best ranking in 20 years.