Wyoming Cowgirls ranked for first time

How about them Cowgirls.

Wyoming is in The Associated Press women's basketball poll for the first time in school history, entering at No. 25 on Monday.

Tennessee remained the unanimous choice, again receiving all 50 first-places votes in the AP poll. The Lady Vols compiled 1,250 points — 56 more than No. 2 Connecticut. The Huskies ran through the Paradise Jam tournament, beating Stanford, Old Dominion and Duke. Connecticut gained eight second-place votes.

Tennessee's only game this past week was a 67-49 victory over then-No. 16 West Virginia on Wednesday.

The Cowgirls have won their first four games, including a 67-66 overtime victory at Wisconsin on Tuesday in a rematch of last season's WNIT finals.

"I'm extremely happy for our fans and our players," Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. "It's quite an accomplishment for a group who has worked extremely hard this season. It's been a building process, and the success we had in the WNIT run and returning the numbers of players we have has certainly helped."

In his fifth season, Legerski has built the program into one of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference. Wyoming finished second last season with a school record 27 victories, and was predicted to win the Mountain West this year in the preseason conference poll.

"You wish it was March," Legerski said. "Preseason is what it states. How people believe the year may go."

So far so good.

The Cowgirls host Montana on Thursday and Denver on Saturday.

"Montana is one of the top teams in the area, they return everyone to their roster. It's a big game for us."

Maryland remained in the No. 3 spot after surviving a two-game West Coast trip without coach Brenda Frese. She is pregnant with twins and didn't take the trip to California for Maryland's non-conference games at UC Santa Barbara and UCLA.

The Terrapins struggled without their leader, having to rally from a 16-point second-half deficit against UCLA on Sunday to remain unbeaten.

North Carolina moved up one place to No. 4, barely edging fifth-ranked Rutgers, which jumped up two spots after beating LSU 45-43 on Sunday.

Stanford fell to No. 6. Georgia moved up to seventh, LSU dropped to eighth. Oklahoma and Baylor complete the first 10.

Duke moved down to No. 11. It's the first time the Blue Devils aren't in the Top 10 since Dec. 31, 2001, a span of 107 straight weeks. Only Tennessee has been in the Top 10 longer.

California remained 12th, followed by Texas A&M and Arizona State. West Virginia, George Washington and DePaul each moved up a spot.

Auburn made the biggest jump, moving up six spots to 18th after beating then No. 15 Ohio State. The Buckeyes fell to 19th and Michigan State rounds out the top 20.

Florida State, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Texas, and Wyoming held the final five spots.

Purdue fell out of the poll after losing to Duke and Old Dominion in the Paradise Jam tournament this weekend.