Enquirer news services

The University of Cincinnati women's basketball team dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday after losing to unranked Nebraska 65-55 Sunday.

The Bearcats (4-2) were No. 25 for three weeks before plummeting to No. 32 Monday.

UC was tapped at No. 18 in the preseason, coming off a season in which it won its first Conference USA Tournament championship and NCAA Tournament game.

A 76-70 loss to then-No. 20 Mississippi State in the Nov. 22 season opener pushed the Bearcats back to No. 25.

After Sunday's defeat, UC coach Laurie Pirtle prepared the team for another inevitable ranking drop.

"We knew it was coming, but we're going to be all right," Bearcats senior point guard K.B. Sharp said. "We're still one of the best teams in the country. It's going to be hard, because no one will think of us as a Top 25 team, but we have to get it back."

UC hosts Rice at Shoemaker Center at 7 p.m. Thursday.

--Shannon Russell

SOUTH CAROLINA 65, MTU 50: Cristina Ciocan tied her career high by scoring 23 points as the 18th-ranked Gamecocks (7-0) continued their best season-opening run in 14 years.

South Carolina hasn't started as well since going 9-0 in 1988-89.

The Gamecocks started the second half with a 17-5 spurt that put the game out of reach for Middle Tennessee (3-4).

Men's basketball

CREIGHTON 68, DSU 48: Brody Deren scored 14 points to lead the No. 20 Bluejays over Delaware State. Kellen Miliner added 11 points and DeAnthony Bowden had 10 for Creighton (8-0).

Kyle Korver, averaging a team-high 18.4 points, finished with five for the Bluejays after being held scoreless for the first 18 minutes.

Miles Davis and Carlos Hawkins each scored a team-high 11 points for the Hornets (2-5).

AP POLL: Arizona held onto the top spot in the AP men's college basketball poll Monday, a day after narrowly beating Texas.

Xavier fell eight spots to No. 21 after Saturday's loss to Mississippi State.

Alabama, Duke, Pittsburgh and Oregon stayed at Nos. 2-5. Indiana moved to sixth. Kentucky dropped to No. 18.

Minnesota returned to the Top 25, replacing College of Charleston at No. 25 in the only change of teams in the rankings.

Texas (5-2) dropped from eighth to 10th in the rankings.

Arizona (5-0) received 69 first-place votes and 1,749 points from the national media panel.

Alabama (7-0) beat Bowling Green in its only game last week and received 1,620 points.

Duke (5-0) was off. Pittsburgh (6-0), which received the only other No. 1 vote, and Oregon (6-0) each played just one game.

Indiana (8-0) beat Vanderbilt and Purdue last week, and Oklahoma (5-1) beat Coppin State. The Hoosiers jumped to sixth, replacing the Sooners, who are seventh.

Connecticut (6-0) and Notre Dame (9-1) moved up a spot to eighth and ninth.

The Huskies rallied from a 25-point deficit to beat UMass, and the Fighting Irish beat DePaul, winning as a top-10 team for the first time since 1981.

Missouri remained No. 11, followed by Illinois, Florida, Marquette, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Stanford, Kentucky, Kansas and Creighton.

The last five ranked teams were Xavier, Tulsa, North Carolina, Maryland and Minnesota.

MEMPHIS: Forward Chris Massie has been declared academically eligible to play for the rest of the season, but the senior will have to sit out one more game for playing at the NBA predraft camp.