LSU dropped out of the top five of the CBS Sports women’s college basketball Power Rankings after suffering its first loss of the season against South Carolina. However, the Tigers hadn’t been tested much ahead of that game, and they actually showed a lot of potential. It took South Carolina an immense defensive effort to get the 66-56 win.
Only UCLA remains undefeated and kept the No. 1 spot this week, but the Bruins can’t get too comfortable because Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks are looking dangerous.
South Carolina is on a 15-game winning streak since falling to UCLA in November. Despite the Gamecocks having the toughest strength of schedule this season, they have an impressive 20-1 record that includes nine wins against ranked opponents.
South Carolina beats Tennessee to extend winning streak to 15, including five straight over ranked foes
Isabel Gonzalez
The Gamecocks’ latest ranked win was Monday’s 70-63 road victory over Tennessee — a team that only fell one spot this week because of a deceiving SEC record. The Lady Vols are 3-5 in conference play, but they lost to Oklahoma, LSU, Vanderbilt and Texas by a combined eight points.
Speaking of Vanderbilt, the Commodores entered the Power Rankings by collecting strong wins over Tennessee and Alabama in the past week. In addition, they put on a solid fight in a 83-77 loss to LSU on Jan. 13. Florida State also joined the rankings following an 86-84 win over North Carolina, which happened thanks to a game-winning buzzer-beater by Ta’Niya Latson.
Maryland is going through a rough period after losing Bri McDaniel (torn ACL) for the rest of the season, and having Shyanne Sellers day-to-day because of a knee injury she suffered against Texas on Jan. 20. The Terrapins have lost three consecutive games against Texas, Ohio State and UCLA. Those are not devastating losses, but Maryland dropped to No. 16 this week.
Here are the latest CBS Sports women’s college basketball Power Rankings.
Women’s college basketball Power Rankings
First five out: Oklahoma State, Creighton, Minnesota, Michigan, Ole Miss