Against All Odds: WVU Women’s Basketball Makes Miracle Comeback Against No. 15 Duke

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. – The WVU women’s basketball team overcame absurd circumstances Friday night, coming back with just five players in the second half against No. 15 Duke 57-49 in the Greenbrier Tipoff.

Some halftime dramatics took place as Jordan Harrison was blocked by Jordan Wood on a last-second three-point attempt. Then, a shoving match between the two began which had to be broken up by the officials.

As a result, six Mountaineers were ejected – senior guard Jordan Harrison, sophomore forward Jordan Thomas, freshman guard Maddie Parrish, junior forward Carter McCray, graduate forward Meme Wheeler and redshirt junior guard Gia Cooke.

All of WVU’s first half scoring was benched.

The only remaining players for the second half for WVU were senior guard Sydney Shaw, senior guard Sydney Woodley, junior forward Riley Makalusky, senior forward Cece Riviere and junior guard Loghan Johnson.

And they got the job done.

With a 23-20 Duke lead to start the he Mountaineers started with an easy two points with technical free throws from Sydney Shaw. Riviere followed with a layup for a 24-23 WVU lead.

After going down 27-26, WVU went on an 16-2 run that included seven points from Makalusky, five points from Shaw and three from Rivière.

The Mountaineers took a 44-32 lead into the fourth quarter.

Duke struck first in the fourth quarter with a jumper from Fournier. The two teams traded blows until two consecutive threes from guard Ashlyn Jackson made it 53-45 with three minutes remaining.

Duke cut it to four with 37 seconds remaining. Sydney Shaw drilled four straight free throws to bring the score to its final of 57-49.

Sydney Shaw led all scorers with 16 points, all tallied in the second half. Riviere had 12 points on 4-8 shooting with eight rebounds.

Cooke had 12 points in the game with seven in the second quarter.

The Mountaineers improve to 4-0.

Find more coverage of WVU women’s basketball at WV Sports Now.