Yow collects win in her 900th game

Billie McDowell scored 26 points, helping No. 21 North Carolina State defeat Miami 71-68 Monday night in Coral Gables, Fla., to give coach Kay Yow a win in her 900th career game with the Wolfpack.

McDowell made 9 of 14 shots, including 6 of 10 from 3-point range for State (18-5, 7-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), which won for the fifth time in its last six games. Yow’s career record is 614-286.

Tiffany Stansbury added 20 points on 10-of-15 shooting for the Wolfpack, who held on despite 61.9 percent shooting in the second half by Miami (12-12, 4-7).

Yow became the fifth coach in Division I history to coach 900 games at the same school, joining Texas’ Jody Conradt, Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, LSU’s Sue Gunter and Kansas’ Marian Washington.

Women’s poll showing stability

With the end of the regular season in sight, the Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 is showing something rarely seen so far: stability.

No. 1 LSU led a top four that was unchanged, nine of the top 10 teams were the same as last week, and the poll had no newcomers for the second time in three weeks.

It certainly wasn’t that way earlier this season, when teams moved in and out of the Top 25 regularly.

LSU (23-1) has kept a tight grip on No. 1 since returning there Jan. 31 and was unanimous for the second straight week. The Lady Tigers received all 45 first-place votes from a national media panel after beating Tennessee and South Carolina to take sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference.

The 68-58 victory over Tennessee, then ranked fifth, ended the Lady Vols’ 42-game SEC regular-season winning streak. LSU has four games left, none against a ranked team.

Ohio State, Duke and Stanford completed a top four that has stayed the same for three consecutive weeks. Ohio State (24-2) ran its winning streak to 13 with victories over Michigan and Iowa, Duke (23-2) won at Maryland in its only game during the past week and Stanford (22-2) routed Cal in its lone game.