RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The No. 22 University of California, Merced women's basketball team shot 54% from the floor and held a +19 rebounding advantage in an 84-54 win over La Sierra University Thursday night inside Alumni Pavilion.
The Bobcats (17-4, 5-1) win marked their tenth straight win over the opponent dating back to the 2014-15 campaign.
Senior Aubrey Hayes led all scorers with a career-high 24 points, half of them coming from beyond the arc. Hayes shot 75% (8-12) from the field, 50% (4-8) from three.
Mia Shannon registered a dominant all-around performance that saw nearly all of her season averages raise. The senior tallied 17 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked four shots. Shannon is now six blocks away from becoming the program's all-time blocks leader. She also notched a pair of steals. All of those numbers came in just 21 minutes of floor time.
Two other Bobcats finished in double figures and UC Merced improved to 29-6 all-time under head coach Sarah Hopkins-Chery when at least four players score ten or more points.
Rainah Smith finished with eleven points and four rebounds, while Shelby Bohlmann pitched in ten points and four assists. Bohlmann, who earned her seventh start of the season, tied her career-high in both categories.
Thursday night's opening quarter was different than what the final score read. Both teams scored on their first three possessions and the Bobcats held a 7-6 lead just over two minutes in. La Sierra's point guard, Arianna Sheehy, forced the Bobcats into a turnover that resulted in a fastbreak bucket at the other end to take an 8-7 lead. That lead change was the first of six in the final seven minutes of the quarter and it was La Sierra who held a 20-17 lead at the first break.
Shannon had six points and both of her steals in the quarter.
The game remained a one possession game until a strong Bobcat attack closed out the half on a 12-4 run. The run started with the Bobcats trailing 26-24. Belvin evened the score at 26, followed by a pair of foul makes via Rainah Smith.
In the halves final 90 seconds, Bohlmann nailed a three to put her team up 34-28 and after a La Sierra basket to cut the Bobcats lead down to four, Shannon built it right back up to six points. The Bobcats carried a 36-30 lead into intermission.
The six point lead only grew larger the rest of the night. Back-to-back Hayes threes to open up the second half had the Bobcats up 42-30. Later on, Hayes splashed another triple to extend it to 15 points. Hayes three-point make came off an assist from Sato. Sato got some points of her own the next trip down the floor to extend the lead to 17 points at 49-32.
Freshman Haylee Owen also scored in the quarter to kick off what would be a stellar final eleven minutes for the Chula Vista, Calif., native.
Owen helped the Bobcats get their first bucket of the fourth quarter with a pass inside to Shannon. She would go on to have five assists in the fourth quarter alone, a career-high six for the game.
The Bobcats first 20 point lead came via a Kara Kutsuris basket with 5:01 remaining, 70-50. Hayes headed the efforts for a 14-4 run to end the game, resulting in the Bobcats seventh win this year by 30 or more points.
UC Merced assisted on 22 of their 31 made field goals and parlayed that with a solid 85% (17-20) shooting mark from the charity stripe in the victory.
Cierra McClain had five assists. Other notables include six rebounds from Gabriella Edmond and a block and a steal from Hayes.
Up next, the Bobcats visit No. 10 University of Antelope Valley in a rematch of last year's California Pacific Conference Championship game. Both teams enter Saturday night's game at 5-1 in the conference standings. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30pm at the Pioneer Events Center in Lancaster, Calif.
