ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Zia Cooke scored a career-high 31 points and No. 1 South Carolina recovered after trailing throughout the first half to beat Georgia 68-51 on Monday night.
Aliyah Boston, the reigning AP Player of the Year, scored a season-low four points, her second consecutive game in single figures. Boston made only one of six shots from the field and had five rebounds.
Cooke, who has scored 14 or more points in six consecutive games, helped fill the scoring void for the Gamecocks (14-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference). Cooke made four of 12 3-pointers and 11 of 13 free throws.
No other South Carolina player scored in double figures.
Georgia (11-5, 0-2) started strong but was denied its first win over a No. 1 team since beating Louisiana Tech in the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
Audrey Warren led Georgia with 12 points. Brittney Smith and Javyn Nicholson each had 10.
No. 2 STANFORD 73, No. 15 ARIZONA 57
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Haley Jones had 18 points, a season-high 16 rebounds and five assists, and second-ranked Stanford picked up its defense after the first quarter and rolled past Arizona.
Francesca Belibi contributed season-bests of 14 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for Stanford (15-1, 3-0 Pac-12), which held Arizona to seven second-quarter points on the way to winning its 10th straight game since the team’s lone defeat in a 76-71 overtime loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Nov. 20.
Jade Loville scored 12 for a Wildcats team (12-2, 2-1) that came in averaging 81.2 points per game and was beating teams by an average of 22.2 points — but no team has scored more than 77 points against the Cardinal since the start of the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season.
No. 13 MARYLAND 78, RUTGERS 67
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Abby Meyers scored 13 of her 22 points in the first quarter to help Maryland get off to a quick start and the Terrapins defeated Rutgers.
Diamond Miller had 13 of her 15 points in the second half for Maryland (12-3, 3-1 Big Ten Conference), Shyanne Sellers added 12 points and Lavender Briggs 10.
Kaylene Smikle scored scored 29 points and grabbed nine rebounds, both season bests for the freshman, to lead Rutgers (6-10, 0-4). Kassondra Brown added 12 points and Chyna Cornwell had 13 rebounds to go with eight points.
The Scarlet Knights had 22 turnovers that were turned into 23 points but they closed the game on a 12-0 run.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
