RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The University of California, Merced men's basketball team earned its first ever postseason hardware on Sunday night, beating La Sierra University 77-60 in the California Pacific Conference Phase Two Tournament Championship game.
The championship trophy adds to an already historical season, a season in which the Bobcats finished 9-0 and dominated its opponents by an average victory margin of 13 points per game.
Head coach Kevin Pham has now won the earliest and latest championship in school history. He started his career winning the Cal Pac Tournament Championship with the women's basketball team in 2013-14 and now has a trophy with the men's basketball team in his collection.
Also noteworthy for the history books, the Bobcats had to come back from 18 points down to knock off La Sierra on Sunday night and it marked the second largest comeback win in program history. The Bobcats deficit was 26-8 midway through the first half, before scoring eleven straight points to cut the deficit to single digits. Mason Westlake shot the Bobcats right back into it and his squad held a 36-32 lead at the break and never looked back.
Westlake, selected the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, led all players with a season-high 26 points and shot a stellar 57% (8-14) from three-point territory. Westlake also became the program's all-time three-point field goals leader the same day he became a champion. Westlake broke Matt Laflin's previous record and the new record holder now has 158 career triples heading into his senior season. Westlake's eight triples tied both his career-high and the program's single-game high. His scoring output was the highest of any Cal Pac player in a championship game since February 29, 2016.
Chiwike E'denchukwu also played a big role and notched his league-leading fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and ten rebounds. It is his second career postseason double-double and eighth career double-double overall. The Phase Two All-Cal Pac selection also finished with a career-high six assists.
Jonah Cottrell, the Bobcats other All-Cal Pac selection, matched E'denchukwu in the scoring column with 14 points. Eleven of his 14 points came in the second half, as did two of his three rebounds.
Onkar Sidhu stuffed the stat sheet off the bench with his best career all-around performance. The junior tallied nine points to go along with career-high's of nine rebounds and seven assists.
Kingsley Obiorah finished with seven points and a block. Robert Benson grabbed a career-high nine rebounds, Angel Serena notched a steal.
The Bobcats shot 52% (29-56) as a team and UC Merced became the first team to shoot at least 50% in a Cal Pac title game since Cal Maritime accomplished the feat in their 2013-14 championship win over Simpson.
Defensively, the Bobcats held La Sierra under 40% from the floor and to just 60 points. The Bobcats have now won 12 straight games when they hold the opposition to 60 or less.
The Bobcats offensive and defensive numbers are even better when you look at the game's final 29 minutes. After trailing 26-8, the Bobcats outscored La Sierra 69-34 in those final 29 minutes of action while shooting 68% (27-40) and limiting La Sierra to a 30% shooting stretch.
Both teams held an 18-point lead in the game, a rarity in basketball history. La Sierra's 26-8 lead was erased quickly and the Bobcats 18-point lead was 77-59 in the closing seconds. A La Sierra free throw finalized the scoring at 77-60.
UC Merced led for 23 minutes overall, including the final 14 and a half minutes after E'denchukwu broke a 40-40 tie. His basket was the first of an 8-0 UC Merced run to go up 48-40. The contest was a two-possession game at 56-50 before UC Merced started to run away with it down the stretch. The Bobcats grabbed their first double figure lead of the night at 63-52 with just under five minutes to go.
The Bobcats won six of their nine games this year by double figures, the highest percentage in program history.
Sunday's match marked the Bobcats third title game in the last four years.
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