#top-ranked

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/ap-top-25-lsu-jumps-to-no-6-wisconsin-tumbles-from-top-10/170868/

AP Top 25: LSU jumps to No. 6; Wisconsin tumbles from top 10

LSU has surged to No. 6 in The Associated Press college football poll after its second victory of September against a highly ranked team, and Wisconsin has tumbled to 18 after becoming the first top-10 team to be upset by an unranked team.

Top-ranked Alabama strengthened its hold on No. 1 on Sunday , receiving a season-high 58 first-place votes from the media panel.

Clemson slipped out of the No. 2 spot for the first time this season.

Georgia moved up a spot to second behind the Crimson Tide, giving the Southeastern Conference the top two teams in the ranking.

Clemson is third with three first-place votes, followed by No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Oklahoma.

LSU has now gone from No. 25 to start the season to No. 6 in three weeks.

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/virginia-pulls-closer-to-top-ranked-villanova-ap-top-25/76719/

Virginia pulls closer to top-ranked Villanova in AP Top 25

January 29, 2018(AP)(STL.News)-No. 2 Virginia has pulled closer to its first No. 1 ranking in 35 years.

The Cavaliers received 17 of 65 first-place votes from a media panel in the AP Top 25 released on Monday. Villanova remained No. 1 for the fourth straight week, receiving 47 first-place votes.

Virginia (20-1, 9-0 ACC) shut down one of the nation’s top offenses in a 65-63 win over Duke last week and held No. 18 Clemson to 36 points.

Purdue remained at No. 3 and No. 4 Duke held its spot despite the loss to Virginia. Michigan State moved up a spot to round out the top 10.

Kentucky returned to the poll at No. 21 after dropping out for the first time in four years.

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For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/top-ranked-halep-fends-davis-marathon-match/70626/

Top-ranked Halep fends off Davis in marathon match

MELBOURNE, Australia /January 19, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) —  Top-ranked Simona Halep saved three match points and finally finished off a 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 victory after a 3-hour, 45-minute marathon against American Lauren Davis to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Halep saved three match points while serving in the 22nd game of the third set at 0-40, and Davis saved five break points in the next game to keep the contest alive.

The third set took 2 hours and 22 minutes and, after wasting three previous chances to serve out the match, Halep converted on her first match point when Davis hit a forehand wide.

The No. 76-ranked Davis had two medical time outs in the third set for blisters on both feet.

“Definitely was a very tough match, so long,” said Halep, who has twice reached the final at the French Open but never won a Grand Slam singles title. “I never played the third set so long, so I’m really happy I could stay and win it. I’m almost dead.”

“I just feel that my muscles are gone. My ankle is, I don’t know how it is because I don’t feel it anymore, but it was nice to be on court. It was nice to win this match.”

Davis did everything possible to stay in the match, keeping long rallies alive to put pressure on Halep.

She finished with roughly twice the number of winners (52 to 27) against slightly more than double the unforced errors (73-39) and broke Halep’s serve six times.

Halep will play the winner of Saturday’s later match between local hope Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka.

U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys advanced 6-3, 6-4 over Ana Bogdan and will next play No. 8 Caroline Garcia, who beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.

Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova had 11 aces and beat No. 29 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 7-5 in a match featuring just one service break.

The 17th-seeded Keys, who lost in the U.S. Open final last year to Sloane Stephens, saved three break points serving for the match, finally clinching it on her first match point when Bogdan netted a backhand.

Keys missed last year’s Australian Open after undergoing surgery to repair her injured left wrist. She then played only one match after the U.S. Open before shutting down her season early to let the wrist heal. It’s helped her start the new season feeling mentally fresh, as well.

“I finished the U.S. Open and I was exhausted,” she said. “So as amazing as that run was, the combination of being exhausted from that and having a wrist that still wasn’t 100 percent perfect, I just needed to kind of shut it down, calm down, and then I was really excited to start the new season.”

Keys is the only one of the four American women who reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open last September still in contention in Melbourne — Stephens, Venus Williams and CoCo Vandeweghe were all eliminated in the first round.

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By JOHN PYE, AP Sports Writer,by Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/top-ranked-uconn-survives-upset-scare-from-no-9-texas-75-71/68065/

Top-ranked UConn survives upset scare from No. 9 Texas 75-71

AUSTIN, Texas/January 15, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) — Katie Lou Samuelson scored 19 points and Crystal Dangerfield made two free throws with 8 seconds left to help top-ranked UConn survive a tough upset bid from No. 9 Texas with a 75-71 win Monday night.

UConn (16-0) found itself challenged like it seldom has been this season and trailed early in the fourth quarter before scrapping back for the win. Azura Stevens scored eight of her 16 points in the fourth quarter.

UConn earned its 102nd consecutive regular-season victory but it was in question when Samuelson missed two free throws with 15 seconds left. Dangerfield put the game away from the line seconds later. UConn was able to cut valuable seconds off the clock in the final 30 seconds because Texas had committed so few fouls and couldn’t force the Huskies to the line.

Jatarie White scored 18 points for Texas (14-3).

The Longhorns squandered late chances when Ariel Atkins missed two free throws that would have given the Longhorns the lead with 2:42 left and Lashann Higgs missed an open 5-footer that would have pulled Texas within one in the final minute.

BIG PICTURE

UConn: The Huskies used only six players and were pushed to the limit after a month of easy wins. UConn had won its previous eight games by an average of 46 points but got outrebounded and was often chasing the ball in transition against Texas’ speed.

Texas: The upset was there for the taking and the Longhorns will rue letting this one get away. Texas threatened to blow the game open twice in the first half, only to watch UConn sneak back for the lead at halftime. Texas saw UConn ended the first three quarters on runs of 9-2 in the first, 10-1 in the second and 16-5 in the third.

UP NEXT

UConn hosts Tulsa on Thursday in a return to the AAC.

Texas plays at Texas Tech on Saturday in the Big 12.

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By JIM VERTUNO, AP Sports Writer, by Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)