Women's basketball rankings: UConn still No. 1, DePaul returns to AP Poll

NEW YORK — DePaul coach Doug Bruno keeps losing players to injury and still is finding ways to win.

The Blue Demons re-entered the AP women's basketball poll Monday at No. 23 after winning their fourth straight game this weekend. UConn remained the unanimous top choice from the 33-member national media panel. The Huskies, who have won 88 straight games and next play on Wednesday against East Carolina, were followed by Baylor, Maryland, Mississippi State and South Carolina.

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DePaul guard Jessica January is the latest one of Bruno's players to get hurt. She broke her right index finger against Georgetown last Wednesday. She's the third DePaul starter to go down as Ashton Millender has been dealing with a leg injury that has kept her out since December 15 and junior forward Mart'e Grays is missing the season with an Achilles injury.

"We're re-tooling on the fly," said Bruno on Monday afternoon before his team faced Providence. "Other kids are stepping up. Kelly Campbell, a freshman, has been impactful. Seniors Jacqui Grant and Brooke Schulte have been shouldering a lot of the load."

January is a big loss for the Blue Demons as she leads the team in points, assists and steals. She'll have surgery on Tuesday and is out indefinitely.

Gabby Williams is this week's American Athletic Conference Player of the Week. #UConnNation

DETAILS: https://t.co/I0CyS2ppuI pic.twitter.com/rbmGLIcIB5

— UConn Women's Hoops (@UConnWBB) January 2, 2017

"We have eight league games in 18 days, and we've already played two of them," Bruno said. "There are another six of them over this two-week period right now. We'll have the first half of the league done by Jan. 15."

DePaul (10-4) spent the first six weeks in the polls before falling out. Three of the team's four losses have come to UConn, Baylor and Notre Dame.

The Irish fell five spots this week to No. 7 after losing at N.C. State on Thursday night.

Florida State was sixth with Louisville, UCLA and Stanford following Notre Dame.

Kansas State also re-entered the poll at No. 25 while Colorado and Syracuse fell out. Kentucky fell seven spots to No. 24 after losing to Duke and Tennessee. The Wildcats did keep alive their 132-week streak of being ranked. That's the fifth longest active streak and eighth longest all-time.

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This article was written by Doug Feinberg from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.