Nuggets to march into home stretch with No. 23 ranking

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana women's basketball has climbed into the NAIA Division I top 25 for the first time this season. The Gold Nuggets were No. 23 when the NAIA announced its seventh poll of the season Tuesday.
     
"Traditionally, we have been a top 25 team," said Bo Browder, whose Gold Nuggets made the 138th top-25 appearance of his 20 seasons as head coach. "I am proud of this team for getting us back there — but we still have a lot of work to get done in March."
     
XULA (23-6) won an outright Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular-season championship when it defeated Philander Smith 66-57 at home Monday. The Gold Nuggets will be seeded first at the GCAC Tournament at Jacksonville, Fla., and play eighth-seeded city rival SUNO in opening round Friday.
     
XULA was among "others receiving votes" and in 28th place in the previous two polls. The Gold Nuggets ended the longest top-25 drought of the Browder era, 23 polls. They had not been in the top 25 since Feb. 2, 2016, when they were 24th.
     
The GCAC's second-place team, Talladega, fell from 11th to 13th. For the first time since 2014, the GCAC will have two top-25 women's teams entering its postseason tournament.
 

NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll (first-place votes in parentheses — records through Feb. 24)

RANK	PREVIOUS	SCHOOL	RECORD	POINTS
1	2	Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) (7)	28-2	218
2	3	Campbellsville (Ky.) (2)	28-2	212
3	1	Columbia (Mo.)	27-3	204
4	4	Montana Western	22-3	197
5	5	The Master's (Calif.)	25-5	192
6	7	MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)	24-4	184
7	8	Carroll (Mont.)	21-7	174
8	6	Wayland Baptist (Texas)	25-5	172
9	10	Oklahoma City	27-3	161
10	15	Westmont (Calif.)	22-7	153
11	14	William Penn (Iowa)	27-2	150
12	9	Vanguard (Calif.)	21-8	140
13	11	Talladega (Ala.)	25-4	134
14	15	Our Lady of the Lake (Texas)	23-6	130
15	13	Bethel (Tenn.)	26-4	125
16	12	Shawnee State (Ohio)	22-8	118
17	22	Menlo (Calif.)	20-8	102
18	19	Lindsey Wilson (Ky.)	21-9	101
19	17	Lyon (Ark.)	23-6	93
20	24	Rocky Mountain (Mont.)	19-11	85
21	21	Arizona Christian	20-10	75
22	17	Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)	19-10	73
23	RV	Xavier (La.)	22-6	60
24	25	Loyola (La.)	23-6	59
25	RV	Pikeville (Ky.)	20-10	48

Dropped from the Top 25: LSU-Alexandria (La.), Providence (Mont.)
Others Receiving Votes: LSU-Alexandria (La.) 40, William Jessup (Calif.) 32, Science & Arts (Okla.) 29, Providence (Mont.) 25, Central Methodist (Mo.) 10, Martin Methodist (Tenn.) 5, William Woods (Mo.) 5, Clarke (Iowa) 4

Ed Cassiere, Assistant Athletics Director for Communications
Department of Athletics & Recreation
XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA 
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