South Carolina was a unanimous No. 1 in The Associated Press poll of top 25 women’s basketball after a pair of wins to begin its bid for a repeat national championship, while Kansas State joined the top 10 and both Stanford and Oregon achieved the first regular season ranking of the season.

The Gamecocks earned a hard-fought six-point victory over Michigan in Las Vegas to open the season and beat then-No. 9 North Carolina State by 14. The two wins made the defending champions a unanimous choice of the media panel nationals of 31 members. In the preseason poll, No. 2 UConn got two first-place votes and No. 3 USC got one.

The top eight teams in the standings remained unchanged, with Texas and UCLA rounding out the top five. Notre Dame, LSU and Iowa State were next, Oklahoma ninth and Kansas State tenth. NC State fell to 13th place.

Former Pac-12 schools Stanford and Oregon entered the rankings after an impressive start to the season. The No. 24 Cardinal, under new coach Kate Paye, went 3-0 last week, winning by an average of 41 points. They had been ranked in the preseason poll every year from 2000 until this season.

The No. 25 Ducks enter the poll thanks to a two-point home win over then-No. 25. 12 Baylor. The victory snapped a 13-game losing streak against ranked Oregon opponents. The Bears fell to 17th place.

Moving up

Maryland moved up seven spots to No. 11 after an impressive 85-80 victory over then-No. 11 Duke. This was the Terrapins’ first matchup against the Blue Devils since defeating their former ACC rival, 65-55, in the Sweet 16 in 2015. The victory came nearly a year after the Terrapins saw their streak of 13 years old in the survey last year. season. Duke fell to 16th place.

falling

Creighton, Indiana and Florida State all dropped out of the poll after early losses. The Bluejays lost at South Dakota State, the Hoosiers at home to Harvard and the Seminoles at Illinois. The Illini joined the poll at No. 23.

Bind greatness

UConn coach Geno Auriemma is one win behind retired Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer for the most wins all-time with 1,216. He could tie VanDerveer when the Huskies play No. 15 North Carolina. The potential record-breaking win could come at home on Nov. 20 against FDU. VanDerveer had Stanford Court named in his honor.

Game of the week

No. 16 Duke in the state of South Dakota. Coach Kara Lawson is challenging her team from the start with three of the Blue Devils’ first four games on the road. Duke opened at Liberty before playing at Maryland.