ROCKLIN, Calif. - The University of California, Merced women's basketball team hung around with the 2019 National Tournament qualifying Warriors but ultimately fell to William Jessup University 67-58 Thursday night in nonconference action.
The Bobcats (1-2, 0-0) were anchored by the guard duo of Mia Belvin and Haylee Owen. Belvin led all scorers with 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Owen added a season-high 17 points and was one of three Bobcats with two steals. Belvin and Shelby Bohlmann also had two steals to play a part in forcing the Warriors into 20 turnovers.
Freshman Deyliana Lewis was the closest to a double-double, finishing with a career-high eight points and nine rebounds. Lewis buried her first career triple in the setback.
Marisse Jackson finished with six points and eight rebounds. Rainah Smith and Nia Smiley helped the Bobcats dominate the glass with nine and seven boards respectively.
As a team, the Bobcats outrebounded William Jessup 51-42. 26 of those 51 were on the offensive glass but the Bobcats only managed 12 second chance points and shot 26% (19-74) from the field and 17% (5-30) from distance on the night.
The Bobcats never led in Warrior Arena but were within two possessions at the end of the half and in the games final 20 seconds.
The night began with the Warriors making their first six field goal attempts to take a 12-0 lead less than four minutes in. However, Belvin responded with her own 7-0 run made up of a pair of buckets inside and a triple off a Cierra McClain assist. Towards the end of the quarter, Madelynn Reed made her first career triple to bring the Bobcats within two at 13-11.
William Jessup's Liz Gehweiler, the game's assists leader, buried a triple with the shot clock off to give her team a 16-11 advantage at the end of the one.
The GSAC opponent built its lead back to double figures, 21-11, their first two trips down the floor in the second quarter.
Again, UC Merced would counter with another punch and came within two just three minutes later at 21-19. The Bobcats 8-0 run was highlighted by a pair of three-point plays from Lewis and Owen. Smith started Owen's fastbreak sequence with a steal.
Owen also came up big in the final minute of the half. Down 29-22, Owen connected from beyond the arc and then after recording a steal, was fouled and hit both shots to go into the locker rooms down by just a possession, 29-27.
The strong comeback efforts marked the second time in the last three games against a NAIA National Tournament team that the Bobcats have cut a double figure deficit to just a single possession by the half.
The last time head coach Sarah Hopkins-Chery's team did that was on February 14, 2019 in the program's highest ranked win ever, 76-73 against University of Antelope Valley. That specific instance, the Bobcats were down 14 early in the second quarter and went into the break down by three.
However on Thursday night against William Jessup, the Bobcats didn't have that same result and fell behind even further. William Jessup opened the second half on a 9-0 run to increase its advantage to eleven at 38-27. The Bobcats first bucket of the third quarter was a Marisse Jackson putback with 6:28 showing on the clock.
The biggest deficit of the game for UC Merced was 14 points, 45-31, with just under three minutes left in the third. Strong play from Jackson and Belvin helped shave the Warriors lead to eight points, 48-40, by the end of the period.
The teams traded points the majority of the fourth quarter as the final periods scoreline was nearly even at 19-18 in favor of the home team. The Bobcats managed to hold the Warriors to just 3-11 (27%) shooting in the last ten minutes, however the missed shots were made up with strong efforts during the game's minute-long free-throw shooting contest.
With the Bobcats down five, Smith was fouled while going to the rack and made one of two shots to make it 58-54 with 56 seconds left. The Warriors then made both of their free throws to extend the lead to 60-54 and made nine of ten free throws overall in the games final minute to hold on.
In the same span, the Bobcats were 3-6 from the charity stripe but did get a field goal out of Belvin with 17 seconds left that made it a two-possession game at 63-58.
Overall, the Warriors shot 70% (19-27) from the line while the Bobcats finished at 65% (15-23).
A positive is the Bobcats were able to make six consecutive free throws for the first time this season.
Other notables include 20 UC Merced points off turnovers and 38 bench points.
Owen (17), Lewis (8) and Jackson (6) came off the bench.
Looking ahead, the Bobcats host Life Pacific University on Monday, November 11. The jump is scheduled for 3:30pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium. In honor of Veterans Day, all veterans and active military receive free admission.
