College Notebook: UC Merced’s Belvin making her presence felt

Mia Belvin seems to get a little better each time she steps onto the court.

The freshman guard from Long Beach has steadily become more confident over the course of the season with her now making nightly contributions on both ends of the court.

Belvin’s instant impact has gone a long way toward compensating for the graduation of Bobcats all-time leading scorer Shelby Howard. In fact, Belvin is on pace to have the best statistical freshman campaign since Howard first set foot on the UCM campus in 2012-13.

Her full skill set was on display Saturday, as she paced UC Merced with 23 points, six rebounds and five steals in a 79-63 victory over Cal Maritime. Belvin leads the Bobcats in scoring (11.7 points per game) and steals (52). She’s second on a veteran team in minutes played and has a good chance of shattering assistant coach Leticia Oceguera’s season steals record of 61.

With six regular-season games remaining and what the Bobcats hope will be a minimum of three postseason contests, Belvin could also make a run at Howard’s freshman record of 353 points.

Hitting the glass

Speaking of records, in a day and age when many complain that the fundamentals of basketball have been lost on an entire generation, the Merced College women’s team showed the art of the box-out is alive and well.

The Lady Devils set a school record with 71 rebounds, 34 on the offensive glass, in a 77-57 victory at Porterville last week. The previous record of 70 was set in 2002, also against the Pirates.

It wasn’t the only first of the historic evening. Salihah Bey (24 points, 11 rebounds), Heaven Mazon (10, 12), Samantha James (19, 12) and Annatranetta Stickman (12, 15) all recorded double-doubles in the game, marking the first time four players had accomplished such a feat in coach Allen Huddleston’s tenure.

Spring is in the air

The junior college spring sports season is officially underway, as the Merced College baseball team opened its campaign with games last weekend. The Blue Devils will host a two-game series with Cañada on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m..

The Merced College softball team opens the season at home against Hartnell on Tuesday, and the swim programs open in Clovis on Saturday. Track and field it set to start at the end of February.

Letting it fly

The Merced College men’s basketball team went a long time without scoring 100 points in a game.

Now, the Blue Devils (13-8, 5-3 Central Valley Conference) have accomplished the feat in consecutive games, including a 105-93 upset of state No. 6 Fresno City on Saturday. It was the third time Merced College has hit triple digits this season and helped raise their scoring average to 83.7 points per game, which ranks seventh in the state.

The quartet of Deonta Woodard (18.2 points per game), Anthony Nolen (17.2), Joshua Willingham (16.2) and Jose Gonzalez (15.0) have led the onslaught as Merced debuted at No. 20 in the state top 20 last week and will likely be on the rise after upsetting the Rams.

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 1:43 PM with the headline "College Notebook: UC Merced’s Belvin making her presence felt."