Losing more than half your team to an ejection can be a winning strategy apparently.
West Virginia topped No. 15 Duke on Friday night after a mini-brawl at the end of the first half resulted in seven ejections, including six Mountaineers and four of the team’s starters.
Those ousters left West Virginia with just five players for the second half, yet it rallied for a 57-49 win.
“I think that’s the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of in my coaching career, without question,” West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said after his team improved to 4-0.
The skirmish broke out after the first half ended when Duke’s Jordan Wood blocked a 3-point attempt by Jordan Harrison to preserve the Blue Devils’ 23-20 lead in their matchup in The Greenbrier Tip-Off.
Wood chirped at Harrison while flaunting her muscles, which resulted in Harrison shoving the Duke junior.
A Blue Devils teammate came over and the pair both shoved Harrison, leading to a skirmish involving more than a handful of players.
Two referees quickly got between the teams, preventing further issue.
While the fracas only lasted several seconds, five West Virginia players, including four starters — Gia Cooke, Jordan Thomas, Madison Parrish, Kierra Wheeler and Carter McCray — made the mistake of leaving the bench and that earned them an ejection for doing very little, per ESPN.
Harrison and Wood both also got the boot from the referees.
“I think we’re better than that and I think we’re going to learn a valuable lesson from that experience and the way that went down,” Kellogg said of the incident.
“So, we have to learn from that one. … But disappointed in how we handled that.
Backup senior guard Célia Rivière galvanized the depleted Mountaineers, scoring 12 points while playing a season-high 22 minutes.
West Viriginia used a 24-9 third-quarter run to pull away for good, and Duke fell to 2-2 with the setback.
Said Kellogg: “I couldn’t be more proud of the resiliency, the guts, the grit, all of the things that I think our team is.”
