MORGANTOWN – The eighth-ranked Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs secured a huge road win over the 13^th-ranked University Hawks by a 53-50 score Tuesday night.

With the Hawks being a sectional opponent, the Lady Bucs took a huge step in securing a first-round home game and possibly hosting the championship of the sectional tournament. They are now 2-0 in their sectional region with a game against Bridgeport still remaining.

Shelby McDaniels led the Lady Bucs to victory with a game-high 27 points. She just missed out on a double-double with a huge defensive effort collecting nine steals.

“My defense leads into my offense,” remarked McDaniels. “So when I can go out there and get those steals, it feels like it amps me up on offense because I know that is one less possession for the other team. We really stepped up big in this game and this was a huge win for us.”

The Lady Bucs trailed by seven, down 38-31, with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. That is when McDaniels put her team on her back with seven straight points, tying the game at 38-38.

“In big moments I feel like I have come up short in the past,” noted McDaniels. “Today, it just clicked. My team needed me and they gave me those passes to get those seven points.”

University’s Lyla Byers hit a baseline jumper to close out the third quarter giving the Hawks a 40-38 lead.

With the Lady Bucs trailing 42-41, Kenna Maxwell hit a three-pointer giving the lead back the Lady Bucs, at 44-42, with 5:49 remaining. The Lady Bucs would never trail in the contest again, switching the defense over to a 1-3-1.

Up 51-48 after a pair of free throws by McDaniels, University’s Ella Simpson made two free throws to bring the Hawks to within one, at 51-50 with 41 seconds remaining.

McDaniels extended the lead for B-U to 53-50 with two more free throws with 38 seconds left, which would wind up being the final score of the game.

The Hawks had an inbound pass under the B-U basket it 1.2 seconds remaining, but the pass was fittingly intercepted by McDaniels as the clock struck zero.

Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Rob Kittle praised McDaniels for her efforts following the game.

“Shelby is far-and-away the leader of this team,” noted Kittle. “She works so hard and I just couldn’t be prouder of her. We made them throw it around some going to the 1-3-1 defense and with her speed in the back, and the way she is able to anticipate, she was able to get her hands on a lot of balls tonight.”

Kittle said his team understood the importance of this game with the Hawks being a sectional battle.

“I challenged them in the fourth quarter, telling the team that this game could allow us to host the first-round game and the sectional championship,” stated Kittle. “We came in here with the goal of potentially hosting the sectional tournament and making everything come through Buckhannon-Upshur. Now we have to take care of business. We haven’t been able to win these types of games recently. To finally win one of the road, coming back from being down seven points, is great for us mentally. I think we are starting to believe in ourselves and what type of team we can be. This was a total team effort. I am so happy with how they fought to win a game like this.”

Following McDaniels in the scoring column for the Lady Bucs were Gabby Parke with nine points and Maxwell and Kendal Currence with six each.

Simpson led University with 17 points as the Hawks dropped to 5-7 on the year.

The Lady Bucs improved to 10-3 on the year. They will host Philip Barbour Thursday at 6 p.m. The Colts will enter the game ranked eighth in Class AAA with a 7-4 record.