Glendale Finished by Fast Start : College basketball: Canyons jumps ahead early and stays there to remain in first place with 93-62 victory.

So many things went right for College of the Canyons and so many things went wrong for Glendale in their Western State Conference South Division basketball game Wednesday night that it’s hard to pinpoint when the dismantling started.

Actually, how about the beginning?

The Cougars (12-15, 6-1 in conference play) dominated from the tipoff in a 93-62 victory over Glendale to increase their winning streak to six games and remain in first place in the division.

For Canyons, which lost five games in a row before catching fire, the winning streak couldn’t have come at a better time. The Cougars lead Bakersfield (12-16, 5-1 after Wednesday night’s victory over Valley) by a half-game heading into a showdown with the Renegades on Friday night.

“The guys think they can win (the division title) and I’m not going to discourage that,” Canyons Coach Lee Smelser said. “We are getting a lot of confidence.”

It showed against the Vaqueros (13-3, 4-3).

Canyons consistently beat Glendale down the court for easy shots underneath the basket and played aggressive defense, forcing the Vaqueros into 21 turnovers.

“We got our (butts) kicked in every phase of the game and we accepted it,” Glendale Coach Brian Beauchemin said. “Maybe we like it. I don’t know. It’s inexcusable at this point of the season.”

The Cougars jumped to a 25-9 lead with 8 minutes 4 seconds to play in the first half and coasted from there. They led at halftime, 36-23.

Much of the scoring damage by the Cougars in the half was done by sophomore guard Randy Eason, who pumped in 12 of his game-high 21 points in the first 20 minutes.

Eason got help from guard Alric Gillett (18 points in the game) and center Kwesi’ Fulton (11 points), who each scored seven points before intermission.

Glendale, on the other hand, got points in the half from only three players and made only 10 of 33 shots (30.3%).

Center Charles Garcia scored 14 points and guards Michael Wright (five points) and Ryan Asplund (four points) had the remaining points for Glendale in the first half. Garcia finished with 20 points for the Vaqueros.

“I thought we were a step quicker and I think our defense upset their offense,” Smelser said. “When they weren’t real fluid in their offense, they took some bad shots.”

The Vaqueros looked just as bad in the second half.

Canyons opened the half with an 8-0 run for a 44-23 advantage with 18:26 left to play behind two baskets each from Eason and Gillett.

From there, it was simply a matter of Canyons running out the clock. The Cougars used all 13 players on their roster and 11 of them scored.

“This was typical of our inconsistency all year,” Beauchemin said. “You can’t play good one game and crappy the next game. . . . We were prepared but there was no application to our preparation.”