No. 1 South Carolina holds off Stanford in the Paste BN Sports women's basketball poll

With most major conference tournaments in the books, South Carolina holds a narrow lead in the penultimate Paste BN Sports women’s basketball coaches poll before the start of the NCAA Tournament.

The Gamecocks suffered only their second loss of the season in the SEC tournament final to Kentucky but retain the No. 1 ranking by a four-point margin over No. 2 Stanford. It is the closest voting since early January following the Gamecocks’ first loss, when they held the lead in the poll by just two points ahead of Louisville.

This week, the Gamecocks retained 19 of 32 first-place votes, with 12 going to the Cardinal following their run to the Pac-12 championship. ACC champion North Carolina State holds at No. 3 while claiming the last No. 1 nod.

TOP 25: Complete Paste BN Sports women's basketball poll

No. 4 Baylor and No. 7 Iowa State along with No. 9 Texas head the field for the upcoming Big 12 tournament. Louisville rounds out the top five as Big East champion Connecticut moves up to No. 6 followed by LSU.

Iowa makes a big jump from No. 18 to No. 11 after winning the Big Ten tournament, though runner-up Indiana remains ahead of the Hawkeyes at No. 10.

Kentucky joins the poll at No. 22 on the heels of its thrilling win in the SEC title tilt. The Wildcats, who have won 10 consecutive games, also beat LSU and  No. 17 Tennessee on the way to securing the conference's automatic tournament berth.

Georgia Tech is the week's lone dropout after falling to No. 21 Notre Dame in the ACC quarterfinals.