CHANDLER, Ariz. – Chris Bramah scored a season-high 24 points to lead the University of California, Merced men's basketball team to their sixth straight road win, a dominant 78-53 victory over Benedictine University Mesa on Sunday afternoon.

The Bobcats (15-6, 11-4) six straight road wins marks a new program record and head coach Kevin Pham and UC Merced's average margin of victory in the stellar stretch is 16.5 points per game. The Bobcats have now set both a program-record home winning streak and road winning streak in the 2022-23 season.

Bramah scored his 24 points on 61% (11-18) shooting. The Oakland, Calif., native is just the sixth player in program history to make at least eleven field goals in a single-game and just the first to accomplish that feat in a Cal Pac road game since Josh Kimble in 2015.

Kingsley Obiorah finished with eleven points, eight rebounds, and a block. His block pulled him even with Kameron Barnes formerly of Pacific Union College for second all time in California Pacific Conference history with 112 career blocks.

Tiler Fears scored eleven points while shooting 63% (5-8) from the floor and was credited with three assists as the Bobcats starting point guard.

Mason Westlake buried two three-pointers on his way to an eleven-point night.

Jaron Mertle scored four points, grabbed three offensive rebounds, and notched a career-high three steals.

Overall, eleven Bobcats scored in UC Merced's 53% (32-61) shooting clinic.

Other individual notables include six rebounds from DeDrick Martin, two offensive rebounds from Ruke Agbabune, and two steals from Cameron Brown.

Bramah and the Bobcats threw the first punch, going up 9-4 after four minutes of action. BenU Mesa answered with an 8-1 run to take their first lead, and then slowly extended their advantage to six points at 22-16 with just under eight minutes to go in the first half.

UC Merced tightened up defensively from there and held BenU Mesa without a field goal the rest of the half. The only points the Bobcats allowed were five Redhawk free throws. On the offensive side of the floor, the Bobcats got going and embarked on a 16-5 run leading to a 32-27 lead at intermission. Fears and Bramah combined for nine points in the half-ending run.

UC Merced led the rest of the game.

A 7-2 run in the first 90 seconds of the second half allowed the Bobcats to grab their first double figure lead of the afternoon at 39-29. After trading buckets with BenU Mesa over the next few minutes, back-to-back-to-back layups had the Bobcats on top 51-36.

UC Merced led by 17 points midway through the second half and a Westlake triple with five minutes to go extended the Bobcats lead to 22 points, 66-44. The Bobcats led by at least 19 points the rest of the way. UC Merced's biggest lead was 77-51 inside of two minutes.

The Bobcats 25-point win is the biggest in the 12 all-time meetings against BenU Mesa.

After back-to-back games holding opponents to 55 points or less, the Bobcats are now ranked top ten in the nation allowing just 63.9 points per game. UC Merced has won 12 games in a row holding opponents to less than 55 points.

Pham's squad has swept the Arizona road trip back-to-back years and are 6-0 in the home and home series against the three Grand Canyon State teams (BenU Mesa/Embry-Riddle/Park Gilbert) this season. Overall, UC Merced's winning streak against the Arizona teams is at eleven games dating back to the 2019-20 season.

Up next, UC Merced will host Westcliff University on Thursday, February 2 at 7:30pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.