Indiana, NC State, Virginia Tech are all impressed with unranked teams

Three teams ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press women’s basketball poll — No. 4 Indiana, No. 6 NC State and No. 7 Virginia Tech — fell to unranked teams Thursday night in the top-10. Losses are attached. Teams for unranked opponents in one day since at least 1999-2000, research by ESPN Stats & Information.

In East Lansing, Michigan State (9-5, 1-2) downed Indiana (12-1, 2-1) in a Big Ten game, 83-78. NC State (11-2, 1-1) fell to Duke (12-1, 2-0) at home, 72-58. Clemson (10-4, 1-1) stunned Virginia Tech (11-2, 1-2) at South Carolina, 64-59, handing the Hokies their second loss in three games.

Thursday’s string of upsets extended the losses to AP top-10 teams to 22 this season, according to an ESPN Stats & Information survey. . Seven of those losses were to unranked teams from 1999-2000 and 2004-05.

No. 5 Notre Dame (11-1, 2-0) was also upset by Miami (7-6, 0-2) before pulling out a 66-63 victory in Coral Gables, Florida. No. 13 North Carolina (9-3, 0-1) also fell to an unranked team at Florida State (13-2, 2-0), 78-71, in Chapel Hill, handing the Tar Heels their second straight loss.

Each of the top-10 teams that lost Thursday also lost a key starter to injury: Indiana’s Grace Berger (knee, out indefinitely) has been out for more than a month and NC State’s Diamond Johnson (ankle) has not played. Starting Dec. 11, Virginia Tech will wait until Ashley Owusu (broken pinky) reaches the middle of the conference slate.

The Hoosiers were one of six undefeated teams remaining in NCAA Division I women’s basketball heading into Thursday; The five left are No. 1 overall and defending national champion South Carolina, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 9 LSU, No. 11 Utah and No. 25 St. John’s.

“We’re disappointed,” Indiana coach Terry Moran said after Thursday’s loss, noting his team’s 21 turnovers and defensive letdown against the Spartans. “Give credit to our kids, they fought until the end. I’m disappointed, but Michigan State deserved to win this game today.”

Duke led NC State for 29 minutes, including the entire second half, before withstanding the Wolfpack’s comeback attempt in spectacular fashion.

“We kept our composure going,” Duke head coach Kara Lawson said. “We stayed focused and locked in and didn’t let the emotions of the game get in the way of our execution. That’s a big improvement for us. We haven’t been in a lot of close games this year, so you don’t really know how. Your team reacts in a close game in the fourth quarter or on really important possessions.” So I’m happy with how we killed it there.

In Thursday’s biggest upset of the three programs, Duke was the only one to receive a vote in the most recent AP poll; Clemson and Michigan State weren’t even in Charlie Cream’s latest Bracketology as of Tuesday.

The Blue Devils’ 12-1 start is their best since 2016-17 and the road win over the Wolfpack is arguably the best win of Lawson’s career. in Durham in 2020.