The Kirkwood Eagles need to learn how to play good basketball with a 30-point lead.

That may sound strange, but Coach Bryan Petersen does not want his club to develop any bad habits when things are going so well.

Kirkwood zoomed to a 31-point lead at halftime Tuesday night and coasted to a 90-58 victory over Black Hawk Community College in a non-conference game at Johnson Hall.

Kareem Martin Jr. led five players into double figures with 15 points as the Eagles raised their record to 5-0. Matt Lassen helped Kirkwood get off to a fast start and finished with 14 points.

Jordan Ashton and Joe Tagarelli scored 13 points apiece and Chike Ukah had 10. Ajay Lawton and Hunter Rhodes both finished with eight points and nine assists, nearly reaching a double-double.

"Good win. Home opener. It was fun," said Petersen. "Nice crowd. I was very pleased with that. A good student section. It was nice to see some people out there watching us."

The fans saw Kirkwood grab control early.

"Great start to the game," said Petersen. "That's exactly what we want to do the first five minutes. We played them even in the second half, which was disappointing."

Kirkwood pummeled Black Hawk, 54-23, in the first 20 minutes, but the Eagles had only a 36-35 edge in the second half with the game on cruise control.

"It's hard to play in those games," said Petersen, who is not far removed from his own playing days at Kirkwood and Iowa State. "But we have mature players, we have sophomores. I'm hoping we can handle it and learn from that a little bit better."

Petersen likes his ballclub and he especially likes the depth.

"They're really coming together," he remarked. "I really like our chemistry. They play for each other. That's a hard thing to get. We've got it going right now, we just have to keep it going.

"And they're coachable," said Petersen. "They're a fun group to be around."

Jamaree Atwater, who played at Kirkwood last year, scored 16 points for Black Hawk (1-1).

BLACK HAWK (58): Blohm 2 1-3 5, Lowderman 0 0-0 0, Cole 5 0-0 13, Buhman 0 0-0 0, Vice 2 2-3 6, Hanley 0 0-1 0, Turner 1 0-0 2, R.Terronez 0 2-2 2, Holt 0 1-1 1, Johnson 0 3-5 3, Lewis 2 5-6 9, Atwater 6 0-0 16, M.Terronez 0 0-0 0, Hawthorne 0 1-3 1. Totals 18 15-24 58.

KIRKWOOD (90): Singleton 2 0-0 4, Lawton 3 1-1 8, Lassen 5 2-2 14, Ashton 3 6-6 13, Tagarelli 4 5-6 13, Bartlett 0 0-0 0, Rhodes 3 2-3 8, Weeks 1 0-0 2, Olson 1 1-2 3, Cowser 0 0-1 0, Martin 6 0-0 15, Ukah 4 2-2 10, Hyberg 0 0-0 0. Totals 32 19-23 90.

Halftime - Kirkwood 54, Black Hawk 23. 3-point goals - Black Hawk 7 (Atwater 4, Cole 3), Kirkwood 7 (Martin 3, Lassen 2, Lawton 1, Ashton 1).

Fouled out - Vice.