BATON ROUGE — On the heels of its 1-1 performance in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, the LSU women’s basketball team fell to No. 18 in the Associated Press poll while remaining 17th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll.
The Lady Tigers beat Kentucky in the first round of the tournament before falling to 15th-ranked Vanderbilt in the second round.
The No. 18 ranking is the lowest for LSU since the second week of December, when the Lady Tigers occupied the No. 20 slot.
Tennessee’s first loss in more than two months sent Notre Dame back to No. 1 in both polls. Notre Dame returned to the position it held for four weeks in January and February before losing to Rutgers.
Tennessee, which had been No. 1 for two weeks, had an 18-game winning streak broken by a 77-74 loss to Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Connecticut also vaulted past the Lady Vols as it moved into the No. 2 post while Tennessee dropped to third.
Georgia beat Vanderbilt to win the SEC Tournament and moved up two spots to fourth. Duke was fifth and was followed by Louisiana Tech and Oklahoma as the polls had an identical top seven.
Rutgers, Purdue were each ranked eighth and ninth by one poll while Vanderbilt rounded out the top 10 in the AP poll and Iowa State is 10th in the coaches poll.
The No. 10 ranking is the highest since Jan. 27, 1998 for Vanderbilt, which was 15th last week. The Commodores hold onto the No. 13 position in the coaches poll.
Florida also represents the SEC in the rankings as it fell to 14th and 15th in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, respectively, after a second-round loss to Arkansas in the conference tournament.
LSU now awaits its third consecutive NCAA Tournament bid, which will be announced Sunday on an ESPN Selection Show Special.