WISE - - Allison Ball scored a career-high 20 points and Makenzie Cluesman recorded her second consecutive double-double with 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds as UVa-Wise defeated Fairmont State 80-64 at the Prior Center Saturday. The victory was the eighth at home this season for Kristin Kunzman's team, the most since the team collected nine home victories in the 2009-10 campaign.

UVa-Wise (9-9, 5-9 MEC) got off to a quick start by scoring 16 of the game's first 22 points. Ball scored ten of her game-high 20 points in the stretch as she made a trio of 3-pointers in the opening period.

Fairmont State (15-5, 9-5 MEC) battled back to get the game within five points moving to the second quarter. Makenzie White scored five points over the final 33 seconds in the period as the Fighting Falcons closed the stanza on a 6-1 spurt.

White's strong play carried over to the second period as she scored seven points in the first 3:05 of the period. Her 3-point basket at the 6:55 mark tied the game at 24-24. On its next offensive possession, Fairmont State took the lead on a layup by Kelli Jo Harrison off a White assist.

Kayla Carey scored inside to tie the game and following a missed layup by White, Natalia Saar drained a 3-pointer to give the Cavaliers a 29-26 lead. It would be a lead UVa-Wise would not give up.

Leading 36-33, the Cavs opened the second half on a 14-4 run that started with consecutive baskets inside by Alle Moore and concluded with a Cluesman steal and coast-to-coast layup.

Trailing by 13 at 50-13, Fairmont State was delivered an even bigger blow when White left the contest due to injury. While White did not return, Steve McDonald's team played inspired basketball over the final five minutes of the third quarter.

The Fighting Falcons outscored the Cavs 16-7 over the final five minutes of the stanza to head to the fourth period trailing 57-53.

Deidra Combs was the spark plug for Fairmont State as she scored 10 of her 15 points as her 5-5 showing at the free throw line aided an 8-9 showing by the visitors at the charity stripe in the period.

Kunzman's squad put the game away mid-way through the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run that pushed the lead from 63-57 to 74-59 with just over four minutes to play.

Ball, Taylor Sandidge, Cluesman and Harding all scored during a stretch that also included a technical foul assessed to McDonald.

A Kehana Grayer basket with 1:33 remaining gave UVa-Wise its largest lead of the day of 80-61 with 1:33 to play. Fairmont State would get no closer than 13 points over the final four minutes of the game.

As a team, UVa-Wise made 28-33 free throws and won the battle of the boards 46-32 while connecting on eight 3-point baskets.

Moore finished with 16 points on 6-11 shooting while Carey made 6-8 free throws en route to 10 points.

White scored a team-high 18 points in 25 minutes while adding three assists and three rebounds.

The victory was the first for UVa-Wise over Fairmont State since joining the MEC and keeps the team in the thick of the league race for a home game in the conference tournament.

The Cavs will play a pair of road league games next week, beginning Thursday at Glenville State.