South Carolina finishes perfect season No. 1 in first AP poll after NCAA Tournament

After going 38-0 and capturing their second national championship in three years, South Carolina finishes No. 1 in the first AP Top 25 women's basketball poll released after the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks received all 35 first-place votes.

Second-ranked Iowa scored a unanimous No. 2 ranking, their best finish since capturing the 1988 title. The Hawkeyes pushed South Carolina to the limit, but the Gamecocks pulled away late in the fourth quarter for the 87-75 win.

UConn and North Carolina State, who both made the Final Four, rounded out the top five, followed by USC, LSU, Texas, and Oregon State. The top 10 was rounded out by Stanford and UCLA.

This is the first time in the 47-year history of the women's Top 25 poll that the AP released a final poll after the NCAA Tournament.

Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences dominate the rankings, with six teams from each in the season-ending top 25. The ACC is next with five teams, followed by the Big Ten with three.

Duke, West Virginia, and Iowa State all made the Top 25 after strong NCAA tournament runs. The Blue Devils defeated Ohio State and pushed UConn to the brink in the Sweet 16, while the Hawkeyes nearly knocked off the eventual champs before running out of gas late in the fourth quarter.

Unranked in the preseason, North Carolina State vaulted all the way up to third in the final poll, the biggest jump for any team aside from South Carolina, who was sixth in the preseason ranking.

Creighton, Utah, Kansas State, Syracuse, and Oklahoma rounded out the top 25.

Unfortuntely, for Unlv, Fairfield, and Louisville, early exits from the tournament meant they fell out of the rankings.