MERCED, Calif. - The University of California, Merced women's basketball team ran past Westcliff University, 81-42, on Tuesday night to close out their season-long four game homestand inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
The Bobcats (5-2) 35+ point win was their second of it's kind this season and they enter the Thanksgiving holiday with a +12 scoring margin.
Junior Mia Belvin led all scorers and tied her season-high with 22 points. Belvin also filled up the stat sheet with five rebounds, three steals and a block.
Freshman Rainah Smith and Haylee Owen scored a career-high 15 and 12 points respectively. Smith has now scored in double figures in the Bobcats last three wins and has shot a solid 87% (14-16) from the charity stripe. Owen's 12 point effort came on an efficient 80% (4-5) from the floor. Six of Owen's 12 points came in the fourth quarter.
Senior Mia Shannon tallied ten points and grabbed seven rebounds in her second straight double figure scoring effort. Freshman Gabriella Edmond hauled in a career-high 13 rebounds, becoming the first freshman since Mia Shannon in the 2015-16 campaign to grab at least 13 boards.
The Bobcats outscored Westcliff in each quarter and never trailed after Mia Shannon's second-chance basket put her team up 4-2.
Up 11-9 with three minutes left in the period, Smith headed a 6-0 run that extended the lead to 17-9.
The Bobcats also opened up the second quarter on a 6-0 run via four points from Belvin and tough bucket inside from sophomore Alyssa Ono.
Smith, who also tied her career-high with nine rebounds, accounted for the Bobcats largest first half advantage with a pair of free throws to go up 41-16.
At halftime, the Bobcats led 41-20. The 21 points allowed in the half marked the third time this year that the Bobcats have held an opponent to 20 points or less in a half. All three of those halves have come on Hostetler Court, where the Bobcats are 5-1 at home this year and 13-2 since November 27, 2018.
The Bobcats were just as dominant in the second half, nearly doubling the opponents point total and held Westcliff to just 23% (7-30) from the field.
Four different Bobcats scored on the first six possessions after intermission. Cierra McClain became the fifth Bobcat of the quarter to score with a triple that expanded the gap to 34 points at 55-21. Kimiko Sato put the Bobcats up 35 and Belvin had the home team up 36, 63-27.
The largest lead of the night, 78-36, came with 3 minutes and 12 seconds left of the season-long four-game homestand. Owen was responsible for it via her second career three-point field goal.
Overall, the Bobcats shot 43% (28-65) from the floor, 20% (3-15) from downtown and 73% (22-30) from the charity stripe. The Bobcats have sunk 20+ free throws in each of their last three wins.
Other notables include five assists from McClain, three assists each from Ono and Deja Jackson and a block from Shannon.
Looking ahead, the Bobcats visit NCAA DII opponent Holy Names University in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, November 24. Tipoff inside Tobin Gymnasium is scheduled for 4:00pm.
