South Carolina women's basketball drops in AP ranking following first SEC loss since 2021
On Sunday, something happened to the South Carolina women’s basketball program that hasn’t happened in years: Dawn Staley’s team lost a regular season SEC contest for the first time since December of 2021. The Gamecocks’ 57-game streak snapped in Austin at the hands of the No. 4-ranked Texas Longhorns. The defeat also marked the first time South Carolina had lost two regular season games in a season since the 2020-2021 campaign.
Following the loss, South Carolina is 22-2 and 10-1 in SEC play. USC now is part of a four-way tie (in the loss column) in the overall SEC standings. Texas, LSU, and Kentucky all have stumbled just once in conference play, though, Kentucky has two fewer wins than the rest of the squads at the top of the league.
Win tickets to the South Carolina-Florida women’s basketball game
Because of the loss, when the Associated Press released its updated top 25 on Monday, South Carolina fell two spots down to No. 4 in the rankings.
Because of their undefeated record, the UCLA Bruins held tight as the AP’s No. 1; LSU, slotting in at No. 5, is the only team in the country with just one loss. The top seven overall teams (UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas, South Carolina, LSU, Southern Cal, and UConn) appear to have separated themselves from the rest of the pack this season.
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You can see the entire AP top 25 rankings below (first-place votes in parentheses):
- UCLA Bruins (31)
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish
- Texas Longhorns
- South Carolina Gamecocks
- LSU Tigers
- Southern Cal Trojans
- UConn Huskies
- Kentucky Wildcats
- Ohio State Buckets
- NC State Wolfpack
- TCU Horned Frogs
- North Carolina Tar Heels
- Duke Blue Devils
- Kansas State Wildcats
- Tennessee Lady Volunteers
- Oklahoma Sooners
- Maryland Terrapins
- West Virginia Mountaineers
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
- Oklahoma State Sooners
- Alabama Crimson Tide
- Michigan State Spartans
- Florida State Seminoles
- Creighton Blue Jays
- Baylor Bears
Win tickets to Senior Day, South Carolina-Kentucky women’s basketball game
This week, South Carolina women’s basketball plays twice, but only one of the games will count in the SEC race.
First, the Gamecocks will return home for a contest against the Florida Gators. Scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 13th, the game will be just South Carolina’s second at Colonial Life Arena in February. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network, while the ESPN app streams the contest. The game also is part of the “Play 4 Kay” movement that raises awareness and funds for the fight against cancer, especially cancer in women.
Then, on Sunday, February 16th, South Carolina will renew its annual rivalry against the Geno Auriemma-led UConn Huskies at 1:00 p.m. ABC will broadcast the top-10 showdown, while ESPN+ and the ESPN app will make it available for streaming. The Gamecocks have won five of six in the series and four in a row overall against the Huskies.
