Indiana reaches No. 2 in women’s AP Top 25; SC still No. 1

South Carolina beat a top opponent to remain No. 1 in TheAssociated Press women’s college basketball poll released Mondayand now has a showdown with another one looming this weekend.

The Gamecocks (23-0) topped then- No. 5 UConn 81-77 on Sunday toremain unbeaten and stay the unanimous choice atop the poll fromthe 28-member national media panel. After facing Auburn onThursday, South Carolina will play No. 3 LSU on Sunday in a matchupof the last two unbeatens in Division I women’s collegebasketball.

Dawn Staley’s team has won 29 consecutive games and has been No.1 in the poll for 33 consecutive weeks. That’s one week short oftying the Huskies for the third-longest streak atop the poll. OnlyUConn (51 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36) have had longer runs atNo. 1.

While South Carolina has had a stranglehold on No. 1 for morethan a year, Indiana is making its first appearance ever at No. 2after Stanford lost to Washington.

“I’m going to relish this for a minute, knowing where theprogram was to where it is,” Indiana coach Teri Moren said. “We’vemade a lot of history since we’ve been here in our nine seasons andit’s one of the more historical things we’ve been able toaccomplish. Give our players credit, I don’t want to discount whata big achievement this is. We’re more than humbled to be No.2.”

Indiana has won 10 straight since suffering its lone loss of theseason to Michigan State. The Hoosiers have a tough stretch comingup, starting with a home game against No. 5 Iowa on Thursday.Indiana, which hadn’t been ranked higher than fourth before Monday,then plays No. 13 Ohio State and 12th-ranked Michigan.

“That’s why we take it one game at a time, but you understandthe magnitude of what’s ahead of us. I tell the kids all the timewe’re in control of our own destiny,” Moren said.

LSU remained at No. 3 after close wins over Tennessee, Georgiaand Texas A&M. The Tigers have a week to prepare for theGamecocks.

UConn moved up one spot to fourth after its close loss to theGamecocks and Iowa was fifth.

The Cardinal fell to sixth with Utah, Maryland, Duke and NotreDame rounding out the top 10. The Blue Devils beat the Irish onSunday to take over sole possession of first in the ACC and vaultup six spots in the poll. It’s Duke’s best ranking since the teamfinished the 2017 season ranked ninth.

The NCAA will have its first reveal of the top 16 teams in thetournament to this point on Thursday.

FALLING CYCLONES

It was a rough week for Iowa State, which lost to Kansas by onepoint and Baylor by six. The Cyclones fell nine spots in the pollfrom 12th to 21st.

RE-ENTRY

Colorado came back into the poll at No. 25 after beating Oregonand Oregon State over the weekend. The Buffaloes were ranked forfour weeks before falling out last week. Middle Tennessee droppedout of the poll after losing both its games last week.