The West Virginia women's basketball team had multiple odds stacked against them when they played Duke on Friday. Not only were the then-unranked Mountaineers taking on the then-No. 15 Blue Devils, but they ended up having to play the entire second half with only five available players after a skirmish before halftime resulted in six ejections.
Now, the undefeated Mountaineers have moved up to sit at No. 23, while the Blue Devils have fallen out of the Associated Press' Top 25 altogether.
Duke's Jordan Wood blocked a shot at the first-half buzzer and taunted the shooter, West Virginia's Jordan Harrison. Harrison pushed Wood in response, which led to a shoving match between players on both teams. Harrison and Wood were both ejected, as well as five Mountaineers who left the bench despite not being a part of the shoving: Gia Cookie, Carter McCray, Madison Parrish, Kierra Wheeler, and Jordan Thomas.
West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg told ESPNU how he felt watching his only five players available — Sydney Shaw, Sydney Woodley, Loghan Johnson, Célia Rivière, and Riley Makalusky — carry the squad to an unlikely win.
“You see in sports [that] things like that happen,” Kellogg said. “There's just something where you rally around each other. I'm so proud of that group of five. I guess it's one of those moments where you don't really know what to say, but that's as good a win as I've probably ever had.”
Kellogg specifically shouted out Rivière, the French senior who had only played two minutes in the first half but stepped up after the ejection to finish with 12 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
“She was fantastic,” Kellogg said. “We changed her spot in the zone and told her, ‘Don't even really try to score, just be available to rebound on the defensive end.' But she's a talented kid. She has great hands and is our best passer out of the post. Sydney Shaw stepped up big time, too.”
Shaw, who sealed the game with five straight free throws, ended up leading West Virginia in scoring in the contest, racking up 16 points and seven boards.
The Mountaineers will return to full strength when they face Appalachian State next on Thursday.
