MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's basketball team dominated the second half to win the California Pacific Conference opener 62-47 over La Sierra University on Thursday night inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
With the win, the Bobcats (3-2, 1-0) start 1-0 in Cal Pac play for the second consecutive season and for the fourth time in the last five years.
The Bobcats 47 points allowed marked the second game overall in the early goings of the new campaign holding opponents under 50 points. Both games resulted in wins. UC Merced trailed 29-24 at halftime before outscoring the Golden Eagles 38-18 over the final 20 minutes to change the dynamic of the game.
Cameron Brown led the Bobcats with 13 points and and ten rebounds for his first career double-double.
DeDrick Martin scored ten points in just 13 minutes off the bench on 4-5 shooting. Martin also had two steals.
Tiler Fears also finished with ten points off the bench. Josiah Ajiake hit two three-pointers for a six-point outing, while six additional Bobcats made at least one field goal.
Other notables include eight rebounds from Jaron Mertle, six rebounds from Brandon Harmon, and two blocks and two steals from Chris Bramah.
Scoring was hard to come by for UC Merced in the first ten minutes of the night and they had to play catchup trailing by double figures as early as the 14-4 mark and then again at 18-8. Fears cut the deficit to single digits with a bucket inside that sparked a 9-0 UC Merced run to bring the Bobcats within a point. Fears had four points overall in the run, while Brown had a triple and Martin made two foul shots.
However, the Bobcats fell behind 29-20 and it was 29-24 La Sierra leading at intermission. The visitors managed to hold a first half lead due to shooting 50% (7-14) from beyond the arc.
Head coach Kevin Pham's offense got rolling in the second half and it took the Bobcats less than 10 minutes to match their scoring output from the first half. Brown put the Bobcats up 34-33 early in the stanza and the Bobcats would remain in front and only add to the rest of the way.
A 14-4 run followed over the next five minutes that gave the Bobcats their first double figure lead of the night. Harmon splashed a triple from straightaway and then Fears scored in transition to go up 48-37.
Shortly after, Austin Dewes had a slam dunk and scores by Brown and Bramah extended the Bobcats lead to a game-high 18 points and 57-39 with seven minutes to go.
UC Merced led 59-43 with five minutes left and 62-45 inside of three minutes to set themselves up for the victory.
UC Merced finished the night shooting 43% from the floor, 20% from three-point land, and 50% from the foul line.
Also of note, the Bobcats held La Sierra without a three-point basket (0-12) in the second half after the Golden Eagles made seven in the first 20 minutes. The Bobcats also forced ten second half turnovers.
UC Merced's bench outscored La Sierra's bench 34-2.
With the win, the Bobcats have now won 12 of their last 13 games against La Sierra dating back to the 2018-19 season.
Up next, UC Merced will host Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on Saturday, December 2 at 7:30pm inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
