Moses Oceguera begins her sixth season on the UC Merced coaching staff.
Her first five years with the program have been nothing short of successful. The Bobcats have finished at least two games over .500 in Cal Pac play each season and have advanced to the championship game in three of the four years. In the shortened 2020-21 campaign, the Bobcats capped off a perfect 9-0 season with a win in the Phase Two California Pacific Conference Championship game. Most recently in 2022-23, UC Merced set a program-record with 21 wins, 14 in conference play, and advanced to the Cal Pac Tournament Championship match.
Understanding how to run an offense as a former all-conference point guard with UC Merced women’s basketball, Oceguera has helped the Bobcats post their two highest scoring averages in program history. The Bobcats put up 69.5 points per game in 2019-20 before resetting the record with 75.7 points per game in the championship winning season. She has also keyed in on the team’s academics during her first five years on the coaching staff and the Bobcats have responded with their top three cumulative GPA’s.
Oceguera carries a winning mentality on her shoulders as she previously was a part of three conference tournament championships with the UC Merced women’s basketball team. She won a championship as a player under head coach Kevin Pham in 2014-15, as a student manager with head coach Sarah Hopkins-Chery in 2015-16 and as an assistant coach with Hopkins-Chery in 2016-17. With Oceguera as an assistant coach in 2016-17, the Bobcats nearly shocked the country as they took the No. 1 team, St. Francis, to double overtime in a NAIA National Championship First Round game before falling 87-83. The Bobcats went 17-12 overall and 9-5 in conference play that season, both of which were program record win totals at the time. A point guard herself, Oceguera helped coach star point guard Courtney Danna, who became the school’s first ever two-time NAIA honorable mention All-American in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.
As mentioned previously, Oceguera was an all-conference point guard at UC Merced and played for the Bobcats under then head women’s basketball coach Kevin Pham from 2012-2015. Aside from winning the school’s first ever Cal Pac Tournament Championship in 2015, Oceguera ranks third in program history with two steals per game and fifth in program history with 2.9 assists per game. She also ranks top 15 with 7.9 points per game and is the only player in program history to start her career with four straight double figure scoring efforts.
