The Women’s Other Top 25: Top holds steady, movement further down

The top six spots in the women’s Other Top 25 remained the same this week, with Princeton holding the No. 1 spot for a second straight week.

The Tigers improved to 10-1 by beating Rutgers 81-63 at home on Wednesday. They are 41st in BartTorvik and sit 14th in adjusted offensive efficiency.

Richmond stayed at No. 2, while South Dakota St. came in third. The Jackrabbits topped Ball St. 78-59 on Sunday to push their win streak to five. The Cardinals ranked 17th this week. Fairfield held steady at four, followed by Davidson and James Madison.

The first movement we saw came at seven as Rhode Island moved up one spot. Harvard elevated to No. 8, and Ivy League mate Columbia came one spot behind. Troy dropped three spots to round out the top 10.

Santa Clara saw the biggest move up among teams who were in the ranking last week. The Broncos were ranked No. 11. They are 9-3 this season and have four wins over teams from the Mountain West. Loree Payne’s team is 70th in Torvik and boasts the 48th in adjusted offensive efficiency.

North Dakota St. also made a big jump from 20 to 16. The Bison have won six in a row to improve to 8-2. They earned a dominant 90-65 win over Montana St., who is ranked 24th this week. Jory Collins’ group is 74th in Torvik and ranks 47th in adjusted offensive efficiency. NDSU sits 30th in effective field goal percentage.

Four teams joined the ranking this week after not being in the top 25 last week: Green Bay (19), High Point (21), New Mexico (22) and Murray St. (23).

The Phoenix are 8-4 and beat Kansas St. back in November. They just took Washington, who was No. 20 in the AP poll, down to the wire and lost by five.

HPU is 10-1 with five straight wins. The Panthers beat Vermont last month, and their one loss came to Houston. They have a big game at No. 5 Davidson Wednesday.

The Lobos are 8-3 and picked up two big wins over the last eight days. They won at Arizona 72-69 last Sunday and rolled past Houston 63-41 two days ago. Mountain West play begins this week as UNM is set to host Boise St.

The Racers have won five straight to improve to 7-2. They knocked off George Mason and Boston College at the Daytona Beach Classic.

Here is the full ranking:

UNLV – 11; Belmont – 14; Quinnipiac – 22; UC Irvine – 25