Women’s college basketball rankings: South Carolina drops to No. 4 as 43-game win streak ends

Week three of NCAA women’s basketball featured the strongest slate of games so far in the non-conference season. The weekend included two games, played only miles apart, between four of the top six teams in the country, Geno Auriemma grabbed hold of history and a Big Ten squad suffered a season-altering injury.

Here’s how it impacted the rankings.

AP top 25 women’s college basketball rankings after week three:

UCLA
UConn
Notre Dame
South Carolina
Texas
USC
LSU
Oklahoma
Kansas State
Maryland
Ohio State
West Virginia
Duke
Kentucky
Iowa State
North Carolina
TCU
Ole Miss
Illinois
NC State
Oregon
Iowa
Alabama
Louisville
Nebraska

Others receiving votes: Michigan 51, Michigan St. 25, Baylor 23, Vanderbilt 21, Stanford 17, Indiana 9, Tennessee 9, Florida St. 6, Miami 4, Richmond 4, Creighton 2, Harvard 1, Minnesota 1.

Notre Dame tops USC

Week three ended with two main event matchups on the campuses of USC and UCLA. Saturday, JuJu Watkins and the No. 3 Trojans welcomed the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to the Galen Center. The game had a slew of stars both on and off the court, and ended with one side looking like a team destined for a run to the National Championship.

The matchup featured two AP All-American freshmen from last season in Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and USC’s JuJu Watkins. From the start, Hidalgo showed that with the return of Olivia Miles, and the addition of freshman Kate Koval, the Fighting Irish are the complete package.

Hidalgo led a Notre Dame team who outran the Trojans off their own court. By halftime, Hidalgo had 16 points, six assists and five rebounds, while defensive pressure caused Watkins to shoot 2-of-9 in the first 20 minutes.

Watkins and USC responded early in the second half, with the Trojans star cutting the Fighting Irish’s lead to one possession, scoring nine of the first 13 points of the third quarter for the home side. However, Notre Dame adjusted and kept USC from hitting a shot in the run of play for 10:23, stretching midway through the third quarter into the fourth.

Notre Dame scored 16 of the first 18 points of the fourth quarter to amass a 21-point lead that USC couldn’t overcome.

Making the deficit more difficult to take was the absence of outstanding USC freshman Kennedy Smith, who is out indefinitely following surgery. Head coach Lindsay Gottlieb called Smith the best defensive freshman she’s had come into her program and it was clear she was needed.

Hidalgo led Notre Dame with 24 points, while Miles nearly had a triple-double with 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. The 6-foot-5 freshman center Kate Koval made life difficult for the Trojans in the paint defensively, and added eight points and seven rebounds.

Watkins ended the day with 24 points in the 74-61 win for Notre Dame.

Watching the game were stars from the WNBA and Hollywood like the Los Angeles Sparks’ Cameron Brink and actor Michael B. Jordan. The game looked like the social event of the day and a lot of the party stayed in the city for Sunday’s matchup 13 miles away.

The win moved Notre Dame up three spots to No. 3.

UCLA stops the South Carolina’s streak

Similar to Saturday, Sunday featured an upset that reached another level when No. 5 UCLA ended the 43-game winning streak of No. 1 South Carolina.

Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks top ranking and national championship history makes them a target for any opponent, but it’s been since the 2023 NCAA tournament that the Gamecocks suffered a loss, when they fell to Iowa in the semifinals.

UCLA didn’t squeak out the win either, beating the Gamecocks in a wire-to-wire upset. South Carolina, who lost the interior presence of Kamilla Cardoso, looked worried about 6-foot-7 Bruin Lauren Betts, leading perimeter threats open to score.

It benefited junior guard Londynn Jones the most, leading the Bruins with 15 points on 5-of-5 shooting, making extra passes to find the 5-foot-4 guard open from deep. Betts added 11 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks and South Carolina’s streak snapped, earning UCLA their first win over a No. 1 ranked team after losing in the previous 20 attempts.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: NOV 24 Women’s - South Carolina at UCLA

By halftime, Staley’s side was down 21 points, the first time South Carolina was down by at least 20 points at halftime since 2019. The 77-62 defeat is the first time the Gamecocks lost an away game in the regular season since Dec. 2021.

South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao led the Gamecocks with 18 points in 29 minutes, but what stood out the most was the limited time for sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley. The SEC All-Freshman team selection and 2024 SEC Tournament MVP played four minutes for Staley, missing both shots attempted.

Following the historic UCLA win, students stormed the court to celebrate with the Bruins in a win that took over South Carolina’s No. 1 spot. The first time in school history that UCLA earned a No. 1 ranking.

This is the first week since the 23-24 preseason AP poll that the Gamecocks haven’t been ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Upsets in the Midwest

In Nebraska, the No. 21 Cornhuskers had a tough start to the week, when reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year Natalie Potts tore her ACL in a win over North Alabama. The injury puts Potts out for the rest of the season, and likely into the start of next season. It also ends the premier paint partnership of Potts and senior Alexis Markowski.

Against Creighton, four days later, the Cornhuskers played their first game since the Potts injury and lost to the Bluejays. While the Bluejays have recent success, making the previous three NCAA tournaments and starting this season in the top-25, Creighton started the season losing two of their first three games against tournament teams South Dakota State, and an 18-point loss to No. 10 Kansas State on Nov. 14.

Nebraska was the next side to face Creighton after the lopsided defeat, and while the Cornhuskers started strong, they couldn’t hold onto the lead in front of the home Bluejays. Guard Lauren Jensen scored 11 of her 31 points in the fourth quarter where Creighton finally pulled away after the two teams had 16 lead changes in the contest.

The win for Creighton also wasn’t much of an upset considering the school from Omaha, Nebraska defeated the Cornhuskers in eight of the last nine editions of the in-state rivalry.

East of Nebraska, No. 8 Iowa State had issues of their own. The Cyclones traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa to face Northern Iowa University. Unlike the Creighton and Nebraska rivalry, the Panthers of UNI lost four straight before Wednesday night.

Graduate senior Maya McDermott, who never beat Iowa State in her five-year career with the Panthers, wasn’t going to lose again. McDermott scored a career high 37 points on 66.7 percent efficiency, with only nine points coming from deep.

Making the game even more gratifying for UNI was playing in their first game after All-Missouri Valley center Grace Boffeli suffered a torn ACL of her own. Despite losing their interior presence, the Panthers shocked the Cyclones in front of their home fans.

Women’s college basketball rankings: South Carolina drops to No. 4 as 43-game win streak ends