MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's basketball team fell 75-62 to seventh-ranked Cal State East Bay on Thursday night inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium. Cal State East Bay improved to 15-0 overall and 9-0 in the CCAA.
Pawllos Habtom led the Bobcats (3-11, 1-8) scoring efforts with a career-high tying 18 points. The senior has 16+ points in three straight games and double-figures in four straight. Habtom hit seven free throws and five field goals, one three-pointer.
Elijah Charles tallied his fifth double-double of the season, finishing with 14 points and ten rebounds. Charles shot 62% (5-8) from the field. Overall, Thursday marked his seventh career double-double and with it he passed Ryan Edwards and Cameron Brown for the seventh most double-doubles in program history.
Sterling McClanahan added 14 points on 71% (5-7) shooting, including hitting two-of-three from three-point range. He also had three rebounds and a steal.
Jaden Hubbard and Austin Dewes had five points each and contributed a steal and a block, respectively. Dewes' block pushed him ahead of Matt Laflin for sixth all-time in program history with 40 career blocks. Myles Haynes grabbed four rebounds and collected a steal.
Habtom scored on the Bobcats first trip down the floor but the Bobcats trailed 8-2 three minutes later. The Bobcats worked their way back to pull even 15-15 midway through the half.
The game was also tied 17-17 and 19-19 before the Pioneers opened up a double-digit lead with a 15-4 run stretching from the 7:10 mark through the 2:49 mark. A Habtom triple cut the Bobcats deficit down to eight points with 2:20 left, however UC Merced trailed 39-29 at intermission.
UC Merced's deficit was between 8-12 points for the first nine minutes of the second half. McClanahan kept the Bobcats within striking distance as he hit three of his four shots in the stretch.
The Pioneers extended their lead up to a then game-high 15 points, 57-42, at the ten-minute mark with a quick 9-2 burst. No scoring occurred over the next three and a half minutes until the Bobcats got on the board with an offensive rebound putback from Charles. Cal State East Bay followed with back-to-back three-pointers and an 8-2 spurt overall to go up by as many as 19 points, 65-46 inside of five minutes. The Bobcats pulled within 12 before falling 75-62.
UC Merced finished the night shooting 48.8% from the field, a touch better than Cal State East Bay. The Bobcats also shot better from downtown than the Pioneers, but struggled at the free throw line and committed a season-high 24 turnovers.
Looking ahead, UC Merced will host San Francisco State on Saturday, January 17 at 3:00pm on Hostetler Court inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
QUOTES:
Head coach Gary Stewart on why Cal State East Bay presents a tough matchup:
"They're relentless with their pressure and they're able to do that for 40 minutes. They've got a deep bench, and they're a tough outfit and there's no delineage their effort. It doesn't matter if you've scored multiple times in a row, you're going to see the same pressure coming up the floor. They present a lot of challenges for you. They're really, really good at pressuring the ball at the point of attack, and so you don't get into your offense. You don't get really any rhythm opportunities. And, you know, we didn't help ourselves tonight against a team like East Bay that plays the way they do. You have to go to the free throw line and capitalize. We were able to get there tonight, shot 32 of them, but several opportunities, we came up empty."
Gary Stewart on Pawllos Habtom as of late (16+ points in three straight):
"Yeah, he's playing with a lot of confidence and is really, really aggressive. And he's a highly competitive guy. We're lucky to have him."
Gary Stewart on the battle of the bigs (Charles, CCAA field goal percentage leader vs. (Ijeh, CCAA leader in blocks):
"Yeah, it was a game within a game with those guys. And I thought East Bay did a good job of fronting and backing Eli. We forced the issue sometimes to our detriment. But conversely, I felt like Eli really worked hard at trying to get a good deep post position. And he played block to block so when we did get reversals of the ball, they were able to battle on the other side of the court. If I was a fan, it would have been fun to watch that. But obviously, as a coach, I felt like they could have called another 20 fouls down low. But I think that's basketball as a coach. You're never happy with some of the way that things are adjudicated. But again, you've got to adjust, and credit East Bay tonight."
Gary Stewart on the positives to take away from the game:
"Yeah, I think even going back to last weekend against LA, we're getting better and better in some areas, but we're not finishing. And that's what people are focused on. And we've got to find a way to get better and better. You know, we're working hard and diligently at the free throw line in practice. and trying to instill some confidence there. So it's just a matter of time where we're going to shoot it better. Three-point field goal percentage has been a struggle for us, but really the last four or five games we've shot it better, so I'm encouraged by that. You know, they're one of the better rebounding teams in the conference, and I thought we battled that today on the backboard. They got a couple second chance opportunities against our zone, but when it was five on five and we were matched up, I thought we did a good job on the backboard as well.
Gary Stewart on Saturday's game against San Francisco State:
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, it's a very, very well-coached league, and everybody's got a couple of abidavas, so it's hard to get a tourniquet on the offenses in this conference. But again, a great opportunity for us to learn a little bit more about ourselves while we're at home here before we hit the road again. San Francisco State, I talked to their head coach, Vince, today, and he's an excellent coach, and they've got some guys that present some problems. So we'll get after that tonight and hopefully plug up some of the things that have been plaguing us."
