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The CSU Bakersfield men’s basketball team was ready to start the 2015-2016 season and it showed as the Roadrunners rolled past the San Diego Christian College Hawks, 93-69 on Saturday in the Icardo Center.

“I think we were just so excited,” CSUB’s senior forward Kevin Mays said. “Before this game, it was just building up. The anxiety was just so hot and I was just happy to be back on the floor.”

CSUB head coach Rod Barnes said that he was pleased with his team’s effort.

“I thought we were really consistent in our play until the last ten minutes but that had to do with substitutions,” Barnes said. “I thought we got out of the game what we needed to get out of it.”

The Roadrunners never trailed as they started the game on a 12-0 run.

The Hawks missed their first eight shots of the game and didn’t make a shot attempt until freshman forward Nathan Klekas made a layup to make it 25-10 with 10:38 left in the first half.

“Our first group got out there and really set the tone for us,” Barnes said on the defense. “The guys were really focused and locked in on the scouting report. They executed well.”

CSUB took a 59-28 lead into halftime.

CSUB didn’t let up in the second half as the Roadrunners built a 50-point lead (83-33) with 11:36 left in the game. SDCC made a late push in the final minutes, but CSUB held them off to get the win.

“We played like a solid 30 minutes,” Ahmed said. “That’s good but we are trying to be great. We are trying to win at every position. I thought we were bigger than them at every position and we are more talented than them, so we should just play the whole 40 minutes.”

CSUB shot 59. 7 percent from the floor and had four players score in double figures. Redshirt-freshman guard Damiyne Durham had a team-high 25 points. Mays went 8 of 8 from the floor finishing with 17 points and ended with a double-double as he grabbed 10 rebounds, which is his ninth double-double performance at CSUB. Senior center Aly Ahmed had 18 and six rebounds and junior guard Dedrick Basile added 13 points and 8 assists.

CSUB is scheduled to host its first Division I opponent of this season on Tuesday. The Roadrunners play the Idaho Vandals in the Icardo Center at 7 p.m.

Mays added that he wants them to take the confidence and the momentum from this game into the game against Idaho.

Barnes said that he wants the team to stay focused but added that he wants the team to improve on its defense and rebounding.

“[Idaho is] well-coached and they got some veterans on that team, so we got to be ready to play,” he said.