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Vanderbilt Climbs Back Into Associated Press Poll at #24 2-24-04 2/24/2004 ‘Dores (18-7) Enter Rankings After Important Road Victories Over #15/14 LSU and #14/16 Auburn For the first time since since Jan. 26, the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team finds itself back in the Associated Press rankings at #24. The Black and Gold completed a perfect 2-0 week by picking up two important road victories over top-15 Southeastern Conference foes #15/14 LSU (61-55) and #14/16 Auburn (68-60). In the process, the ‘Dores ended LSU and Auburn’s 13 and 16-game home winning streaks, respectively. Carla Thomas, a SEC Freshman of the Year candidate, helped lead the way for Vanderbilt as the forward averaged 19 points, shot a blistering .630 from the floor and nabbed eight rebounds in being named the SEC Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 22. Included in that total was a 22-point, 11-rebound and four-block performance against the Lady Tigers in Baton Rouge, La. Thomas’ award marked only the second time a Commodore rookie has received the conference’s weekly nod as former Vanderbilt All-America Wendy Scholtens received the honor back on Feb. 2, 1988. Junior Abi Ramsey also had player of the week caliber statistics against LSU and AU as the guard averaged 19.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.5 spg and hit eight three-pointers. The Shelbyville, Tenn., native now leads the team in three-pointers made with 51 and rates second in the conference in three-point shooting percentage (.461) and threes made per game (2.92) over Vanderbilt’s 12 SEC contests. Two-time defending national champion Connecticut returned to the top spot this week after Texas’ upset loss to rival Texas Tech on Sunday. The Huskies garnered 45 of a possible 47 first place votes and 1,173 total points. Tennessee and Duke each moved up one slot to the second and third positions, respectively. Purdue, who received the remaining two first-place nods, climbed to fourth, while Texas tumbled from #1 to #5 with the 62-49 defeat to Texas Tech. Penn State, Louisiana Tech, Texas Tech, Kansas State and Stanford occupied slots 6-10, while North Carolina, Minnesota, TCU, Colorado and LSU rounded out the top 15. Baylor rose three spots to 16th, while Houston climbed from 21st last week to 17th this week. Commodore-victim Auburn fell from 14th to 18th, Georgia dropped a single slot and DePaul suffered a freefall from 12th to 20th after a 73-53 loss at TCU. Miami, Fla., Michigan State, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and former Commodore head coach Jim Foster’s Ohio State Buckeyes round out the top 25. This marks Vanderbilt’s third Associated Press rating of the 2003-04 season as the ‘Dores have now been #24 on three separate occasions. The Black and Gold initially entered the poll at #24 following a 10-0 start on Dec. 29 before suffering the first loss of the campaign at Miami, Fla. The ‘Dores re-entered the top-25 at #24 on Jan 26 at 15-3, but again fell from the poll after a 92-83 defeat to the Florida Gators. |
