Roadrunners cruise past Colorado College

Vincent Ortiz, Sports Reporter

Bakersfield, CA- The CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team was coming off a disappointing loss to Northern Arizona and looked to rebound on Monday night at the Icardo center against Colorado College. The Roadrunners did more than just bounce back, cruising past Colorado College 99-54.  

 In scoring the victory, head coach Rod Barnes beat former CSU Roadrunner associate head coach Jeff Conarroe. Conarroe left CSU Bakersfield to become the Head Coach of Colorado College. In regards to their relationship, Coach Barnes says that Conarroe “He’s a guy that’s like a brother, he probably looks at me and talks about sometimes being a father figure.” 

 The warm sentiments ended there as the Roadrunner’s controlled every facet of the game from the tipoff. Tough defense and great passing helped the Roadrunners take a commanding lead at half 55-17. Numerous times the Roadrunner’s defense forced a poor Colorado College shot deep into their shot clock. Colorado College jumped into a 1-3-1 defense to try and throw off the Roadrunners, only to give up a thunderous slam dunk to Ivan Reynolds (14:35). 

 The Roadrunners owned the paint Monday night outscoring Colorado College 46-16, including going 26-37 from the free throw line. The Roadrunners defense also stood out as they scored 33 points off turnovers compared to Colorado College’s 2. 

 It was an impressive evening for the Roadrunners as all 12 players who entered the game scored. Five Roadrunner’s scored in double figures on Monday night. Guard Shaun Williams led all players with scoring, tallying 15 points and adding 7 rebounds. Williams had an all-around performance for the Roadrunners, when asked what he could improve on he noted, “Take care of the ball and make open shots…whatever the team needs me to do I’ll do.” 

 Justin McCall (12), Travis Henson (12), Antavion Collum (12), and Ivan Reynolds (11) all added to the barrage of buckets by the Roadrunners. McCall who shot 1-6 in the Northern Arizona loss said of his improved performance, “I was just focused on playing well really, I didn’t play well against Northern Arizona. My focus today was to come in and play well and do what I can for the team.”  

 Colorado College was led in scoring by Scott Ruegg who netted 13 points. 

 Coach Barnes said of the upcoming Boise State game “We got to continue to go places and play people that have a lot of success at their homes, so that as we prepare for conference play, we won’t be intimidated by some of the places we may go during our conference play and not have been in that kind of atmosphere or had played against that kind of team.”  

 CSUB (2-2) will now hit the road for a matchup with a tough Boise State team. The `Roadrunners will meet the Broncos in Boise on Friday, Nov. 26, game time 6 p.m. (PT)