MERCED, Calif. - The University of California, Merced men's basketball team led for the final 35 minutes in a 65-56 win over Pacific Union College Saturday night in their quick pit stop inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
The Bobcats (10-10, 3-5) home win comes amidst a five game stretch in which four of them are on the road.
Four Bobcats scored in double figures, including Raphael Durr, who came off the bench early in the first half to spark a 15-0 run that gave the Bobcats a lead that never vanished.
Durr finished with a game-high 15 points and three steals, while Ryan Haywood and Mason Westlake used their attacking and three-point shooting abilities to pitch in 13 points apiece.
Haywood and Westlake each recorded two steals and Haywood is now tied with Aki Chambers with 110 career steals at the top of the program's all-time list.
In his first home game since January 3 due to an injury, Aaron Laflin had a productive return to Hostetler Court with an eleven point, five rebound performance. The senior also had a timely block in the Bobcats 15-0 run that resulted in a triple at the other end of the floor.
Andrew Williams added eight points and two assists off the bench.
The game-changing run came with the Bobcats trailing 9-3 four minutes into the contest.
Haywood accounted for the start of the run, finishing a three-point the play the hard way to cut the deficit in half.
Between the made field goal and the free throw, Durr and Kingsley Oboralt checked into the game.
On 'Cinco" Durr's first defensive possession, the junior intercepted a pass from the Pioneers Albert Waters III and slammed it home three dribbles and five steps later.
Durr's dunk was followed by A. Laflin's block and triple which gave the Bobcats an 11-9 lead.
30 seconds later, Durr used an Oboralt screen to get a quality three-point attempt off that he knocked down.
Now up 14-9, Cinco was successful on two crafty fastbreak layups that capped off the 15-0 run and had the Bobcats up 18-9.
During the 15-0 run, the Bobcats limited the Pioneers to just one possession in which they didn't turn the ball over or have their shot blocked.
PUC followed the Bobcats run with back-to-back triples, but the Bobcats countered with another strong stretch and scored the game's next ten points to go up by 13 points at 28-15. Williams had something to do statistically with eight of those ten points as he scored six and assisted on an Oboralt bucket.
UC Merced led by double figures the rest of the half and brought a 35-24 lead into the locker room.
The lead shrunk to seven points within the first 70 seconds after intermission and was down to six points, 39-33, less than five minutes in.
It went back and forth between a six point and an eight point lead until the Pioneers went on a mini run to cut the Bobcats lead down to four, 43-39, midway through the second half.
UC Merced's three-point shooters didn't let it get any closer as Durr and Westlake hit back-to-back threes to extend their lead to ten points at 49-39.
Westlake hit another triple with 6:18 on the clock and splashed his fourth of the night down the stretch in a moment in which some would argue got the fans to cheer the loudest they had all night.
Westlake's fourth triple had the Bobcats up 58-47 with 2:16 to play.
Pacific Union began to foul with just over a minute left. Though the Bobcats made just five of ten free throws in the final 63 seconds, they forced a pair of turnovers and defended the three-point line well to maintain a sizeable advantage. Between the eighth and ninth free throws, A. Laflin got free and made an easy basket inside the post.
The 65-56 victory keeps the Bobcats just one game out of a postseason spot with six games remaining.
Defensively, the Bobcats held PUC 18 points below their season average and limited them to their lowest scoring mark in a regular season game since November 29, 2017.
Up next, the Bobcats head to Arizona for a pair of games against Benedictine University at Mesa and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The trip begins with BenU Mesa on Thursday, January 31, at 7:30pm PST.
