Box Score MESA, Ariz. – The University of California, Merced men's basketball team fell 65-54 to Westcliff University in the California Pacific Conference Tournament Championship game on Tuesday night at Bell Bank Park.
The Bobcats end their season 21-9 overall. Head coach Kevin Pham's squad's 21 wins are a program-record.
Kingsley Obiorah led all scorers with 18 points in the Bobcats attempt for a conference championship and the first ever berth to the national tournament. Obiorah, who shot 64% (7-11) from the field and 80% (4-5) from the charity stripe, also finished with nine rebounds, four assists, and a steal. His scoring effort put him over 400 points for the year, joining just Aki Chambers and Mason Westlake as the only two players in program history to accomplish that feat. For his career, Obiorah passed Chiwike E'denchukwu for seventh in program history with 766 career points. Obiorah finishes his career with 19 consecutive double figure scoring efforts.
Mason Westlake tallied 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, and a steal. He reached 1,400 points in his career, joining an elite group of just six California Pacific Conference players to have ever hit that mark.
Both Obiorah and Westlake played all 40 minutes in their final collegiate game for the Bobcats. As soon as Westlake stepped on the court, he officially became the program's all-time leader with 111 career games played. Westlake entered the day tied with Mitch Flores and Kevin Ellsworth with 110 games.
Josiah Ajiake scored eight points off the bench, while DeDrick Martin pitched in six points and seven rebounds. Chris Bramah and Cameron Brown scored four points each.
Other individual notables include six rebounds from Bramah, two assists from Georgie Nze, and a block from Myles Haynes.
Westcliff was led by Abdul Abdullah's 13-point and 11-rebound double-double.
Westcliff won their first ever conference championship in part due to a 15-0 run to start the second half. After the Bobcats stopped Westcliff's run and got within eight points after an Ajiake triple, the Warriors had a 9-0 run in them that put them ahead by a game-high 17 points with just under eight minutes remaining.
UC Merced continued to battle back and kept cutting the deficit to single digits, but couldn't get any closer than eight points and then had to play the foul game the rest of the way and fell 65-54.
Despite the second half outcome, the Bobcats were sound offensively in the first half shooting 52% (14-27) from the field with assists on ten of their 14 made field goals. Westlake and Obiorah combined for 22 first half points and the Bobcats led 33-31 at intermission.
UC Merced would shoot just 26% in the second half to put them at 40% for the night.
UC Merced outrebounded Westcliff 35-28 in the loss.
Stay tuned to ucmercedbobcats.com and follow the team on social media @ucmercedmbb on Twitter and Instagram for all offseason news.
