Shanna Rose | WV Sports Chat
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Down to only five players for the entire second half, West Virginia didn’t just survive — the Mountaineers stunned No. 15 Duke 57–49 on Friday night in a wild, chaotic Greenbrier Tip-Off thriller.
What began as a routine end-of-half sequence exploded into one of the most bizarre scenes in recent women’s college basketball memory. Duke’s Jordan Wood blocked a last-second 3-pointer by Jordan Harrison, the two tangled, and a shoving match erupted near the sideline. Players rushed in, officials intervened, and after an extended review, six Mountaineers — Harrison, Jordan Thomas, Maddie Parrish, Carter McCray, Kierra “Meme” Wheeler and Gia Cooke — were ejected.
Every WVU scorer from the first half was gone. Only five Mountaineers remained. And there was no one left on the bench.
What followed was a gutsy, all-heart performance.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the guts, the resiliency, the grit,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “We talk all the time about what this state represents and we want our team to mirror that.”
Senior guard Sydney Shaw opened the second half for the Mountaineers with two technical free throws, and Célia Rivière followed with a layup to give WVU a 24–23 lead. After Duke briefly regained the edge at 27–26, the undermanned Mountaineers went on a stunning 16–2 run. Riley Makalusky scored seven during the burst, Shaw added five more, and Rivière drained a 3-pointer as West Virginia pushed ahead 44–32 at the end of the third quarter.
Duke surged late. Ashlon Jackson buried back-to-back 3s to cut it to 53–45 with three minutes remaining, and the Blue Devils trimmed the deficit to four with 37 seconds left. But WVU’s “iron five” refused to break. Shaw — who scored all 16 of her points in the second half — calmly sank four straight free throws to ice the upset.
Rivière added 12 points and eight rebounds, while Cooke had 12 before her ejection. WVU outrebounded the Blue Devils 36–33.
The Mountaineers (4–0), running on fumes and adrenaline, walked off the court to a roar — winners in a game that looked unwinnable just an hour earlier. Duke fell to 2–2.
West Virginia will host Appalachian State on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Hope Coliseum at 10:15 a.m. ET.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
