BECKLEY, W. Va. -- Following a win at Concordia (Mich.) in their final non-conference tune up, the Midway women's basketball team returned to River States Conference play on Sunday (Jan. 9) when they traveled to Beckley, W. Va. to battle West Virginia Tech.

The Eagles trailed by as many as seven early in the fourth quarter, but they managed to trim the deficit to one with 6.8 seconds remaining. Following a timeout to advance, the Blue and Gold found themselves with a chance to win the game in the final seconds.

Coming out of the timeout, Dezeree White took the inbound and began to drive to the basket but was cutoff and found a wide-open Jalyn Jackson on the left wing who drained the open trey and give her team the 81-79 victory.

With the win, Chris Minner's squad pushes their win streak to nine and improve to 14-4 overall, while they remain perfect in league play moving to 7-0. West Virginia Tech, meanwhile, falls to 6-11 overall and 4-3 in RSC play with the loss.

In a contest that featured 10 ties and eight lead changes, the Eagles took their largest lead of the contest at 35-28 with four minutes remaining before intermission. Midway, however, went cold over the final four minutes as WVU Tech battled back and took a five-point lead at the half.

Over the final 4:01 of the second quarter, the Eagles hit just 1-of-7 from the floor, while WVU Tech caught fire and closed the quarter on a 14-2 spurt and took a 42-37 lead at intermission.

After Midway opened the third on a 7-0 run to take a brief 44-42 lead, West Virginia Tech dialed up an answer and went on a quick 6-0 run as they would push their lead to its largest of the contest at 59-51 before taking a 63-58 lead into the fourth.

WVU Tech got a layup to open the fourth extending their lead to seven, but Dezeree White – the defending RSC Player of the Week – took over scoring eight straight points before Kindall Talley (Frankfort, Ky.) capped a 9-0 run as Midway took a 67-65 lead with 7:34 remaining.

It looked bleak for the Eagles when they faced a 77-72 deficit with 2:23 remaining, but a pair of free throws by Jalyn Jackson (Cold Spring, Ky.) and a jumper by Keia McCullogh (Nashville, Tenn.) cut the deficit to one before White tied the game at 78 with 51 seconds remaining.

Following a missed layup by WVU Tech and a turnover by the Eagles, the home team had a chance to take the lead with 12 seconds remaining. Alanis Hill went 1-of-2 at the charity stripe with 6.8 seconds remaining as Midway called timeout with a chance to win the game.

Jackson triggered the inbound and found White who began to drive to the basket but was cutoff and double teamed. White then kicked it back out and found a wide-open Jackson who drained the triple giving her team the 81-79 victory.

Dezeree White paced the Eagles with 28 points, 16 rebounds and five assists, while Leah Shelley had quite the debut in her return to action. Shelley finished with 16 points and five rebounds hitting 7-of-11 from the floor and 2-of-3 from downtown. Jalyn Jackson finished with 11 points – including the game-winner – while Allyson Callahan (Morehead, Ky.) chipped in 10 points.

The Eagles are now scheduled to return to action on Tuesday (Jan. 11) when they battle the only other undefeated team in the RSC – the University of Rio Grande RedStorm who are currently ranked No. 18 in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. ET.

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