The Tulsa Golden Hurricane's margins of defeat in the American Athletic Conference were strikingly slim until they visited the Cincinnati Bearcats.
Tulsa's first four games in AAC play saw it lose each one, but only by a combined 15 points.
The Bearcats didn't let Tulsa hang around on Thursday at Fifth Third Arena, though, as UC sprinted away in the second half before closing out an 90-69 win, improving to 14-5 overall and 4-2 in the AAC.
Even a season-worst 19 turnovers couldn't undo UC as it shot 47% from the field and 55% from 3-point range (16-for-29).
The contest was put to bed by the 15:56 mark of the second half. At that juncture, UC's Jeremiah Davenport hit a 3-pointer that rattled around the rim before dropping to give the hosts a 53-37 lead.
The play forced Tulsa head coach Frank Haith into a timeout as he attempted to arrest UC's push to kill the contest.
The timeout didn't help much. Haith's Golden Hurricane team trailed by as many as 24 points and dropped to 6-10 and 0-5 in the league.
Davenport rebounded impressively from scoring a single bucket at Wichita State on Sunday. His timeout-inducing 3-pointer gave him 24 points. He stayed on that total in going 7 of 14 from the field and 7-for-9 from 3-point range.
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David DeJulius added 22 points on 6 of 13 shooting. Adding complementary efforts in the rout were Mason Madsen (14 points), Mika Adams-Woods (12) and Mike Saunders Jr. (11).
The lead stayed around 20 points for most of the final 10 minutes of the game. Fans, which included what appeared to be the largest student contingent to attend a men's game in weeks, started to file out into the cold with 3:32 remaining.
UC went into the intermission leading by seven points at 41-34 despite nine turnovers to Tulsa's six.
The Bearcats led for nearly 19 minutes in the period and took a 12-point lead with 2:34 to play before half.
Davenport's hot shooting started with 17 points by halftime. Close behind him was DeJulius, who went for 15 in the opening period.
UC went 9-for-15 from 3-point range in the half with Davenport (5 of 6) and DeJulius (4 of 5) accounting for all the makes.
Saunders Jr. scored seven points in the first half.
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