MORGANTOWN — West Virginia needed a pick-me-up Tuesday night.
The Mountaineers got it off the bench in the form of C.C. Riviere, who brings with her a European flair to Morgantown.
“I like (Nikola) Jokic,” the 6-foot-3 forward said after scoring 11 points in 21 minutes in helping lead No. 13 WVU to a 78-47 victory against Bowling Green inside the Coliseum. “We’re the same.”
Her game does show a small comparison to the Denver Nuggets’ star, including her shot from long range.
She nailed a 3-pointer in the second quarter to help the Mountaineers (5-0) pull away from the Falcons (2-3), who were able to keep the game close early on.
“I definitely knew C.C. was special,” said WVU point guard Jordan Harrison, who finished with a game-high 20 points to go along with four assists. “She has a little bit of a guard mind set when it comes to passing.
“I knew she could hit those threes. As long as she’s confident in it, I want her to let it go.”
Fresh off its highest national ranking since 2018, WVU was in a battle early on, leading only 18-15 after the first quarter.
Things got a little uglier to start the second half when WVU guard Sydney Shaw was ejected from the game after throwing a punch at Bowling Green’s Lauren Gerken, who was boxing her out on a free-throw attempt.
Shaw entered the game as the Mountaineers’ third-leading scorer.
“I was disappointed for a lot of reasons,” WVU head coach Mark Kellogg said. “There is a standard that we expect to behave and act and then play, as well. I don’t think we met any of those tonight. I don’t think we played great. We missed free throws. We missed lay-ups. We missed assignments.”
And yet WVU shot a season-high 52.6% (30 of 57) from the floor, forced 27 turnovers and held a 46-26 advantage in points in the paint.
Some of that could be directly tied to Riviere, who first came to the United States two years ago from Paris, France.
“It was always my dream to play basketball in the U.S.,” she said.
Her game has a touch of finesse, but her size enables her to bang around down low.
Along with her 3-point touch, Riviere added three assists against Bowling Green. Going back to last week’s victory against Pitt, she showed off her passing ability with a no-look bounce pass that gave WVU an easy lay-up against the Panthers.
“I felt pretty good,” Riviere said. “My teammates are working through me.”
Her adventure to the U.S. took her to junior college at Northwest Florida State, where she was named a second-team JC All-American last season after helping the Raiders win a national championship.
“We thought she was maybe one of the best, if not the best junior-college post players in the country,” Kellogg said. “We knew about her about this time last year and started the recruiting process.
“We went down and watched her play several times. We were fortunate to get her. She’s a great kid. She’s got a great personality and a really good basketball player. She’ll get better as the year goes on. This is just the beginning for this kid.”
J.J. Quinerly scored 14 points and added six assists and four steals, while Kyah Watson led WVU with eight rebounds.
Bowling Green was led by senior Amy Velasco, who finished with 18 points.
