VALLEJO, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's basketball team shot 55% from the floor and topped Cal Maritime 80-54 in the California Pacific Conference opener on Thursday night inside PEAC Main Gym.
The Bobcats (10-5, 1-0) 26-point margin of victory is their biggest ever in a Cal Pac opener and the biggest in 30 all-time meetings against Cal Maritime. With the win, UC Merced also tied its season-high with a four-game winning streak.
UC Merced's 55% field goal percentage was its highest in a road game since January 26, 2023. Defensively, UC Merced held Cal Maritime to just a .309 field goal percentage.
Jaron Mertle led four Bobcats in double digits with a season-high 15 points hitting 7-8 shots from the floor. He also led all players with eight rebounds in his pursuit to become the program's all-time leader on the boards.
Jayson Wiltz splashed four more three-pointers and finished with 14 points overall.
Aidan Sevilla scored eleven points on 4-5 shooting and dished out five assists, while Cameron Brown recorded ten points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals. With his defensive efforts, Brown passed Raphael "Cinco" Durr for seventh in program history with 87 career steals.
Austin Dewes was 100% (4-4) from the field with eight points and six rebounds.
Other notables include seven points from Tiler Fears, six points from Blake Hudson, and five rebounds from Pawllos Habtom.
Head coach Kevin Pham's team jumped out to a 10-3 lead four minutes into the night and then put together six unanswered points a little later to go up by double digits, 16-5 with 12:41 still to play in the first half. Sevilla scored seven of the Bobcats first 16 points, while the Bobcats defense held the Keelhaulers without a field goal for nearly seven minutes.
UC Merced led 20-10 midway through the first half before stretching the lead to 31-13 in part due to a 9-0 run capped by a Mertle offensive rebound putback. After the two teams traded buckets for the next few minutes, the Bobcats finished the final 45 seconds with a 6-0 spurt with a Wiltz triple and a Mertle three-point play to take a 47-21 lead into the locker rooms.
The Bobcats maintained a cushion of 20-26 points for the first 13 minutes of the second half. With 6:35 to play, Wiltz hit another three-pointer to extend the Bobcats lead to a new game-high of 28 points at 72-44. The lead grew to as many as 34 points over the next three minutes, 80-46.
The 80-46 lead was a result of the Bobcats limiting Cal Maritime to just one made field goal over an eight minute stretch.
UC Merced finished the night with an 80-54 win as the Keelhaulers scored the final eight points.
With the win, UC Merced improves to 17-13 all-time against Cal Maritime including 8-2 in the last ten meetings.
Looking ahead, the Bobcats will host Pacific Union College on Saturday, January 18. Tipoff on Hostetler Court inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium is scheduled for 8:30pm.
