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Writing anything about BYU men’s basketball at this point in the season almost feels like piling on, because there isn’t much of anything positive going on with the Cougars.

Tuesday night in the Queen City it was Cincinnati’s turn to beat up on the boys in blue, handing the BYU its worst loss of the season in a 90-68 blowout. It’s the Cougars’ third straight loss and fourth in the past five games.

“We didn’t play well and I thought Cincinnati played fantastic,” BYU coach Kevin Young said in his post-game radio interview. “That’s life in the Big 12. We’ve been getting everybody’s best shots all year. Give them credit.”

BYU led 6-3 at the 17:27 mark, but after that it was all Cincinnati. In fact, the Cougars fell behind by double digits (22-10) with 11:08 to play in the first half and aside from a brief few moments early in the second never threatened. In total, BYU played around 27 of the 40 minutes trailing by double digits, including by as many as 24 points in the second half.

“I feel like they were the aggressors,” BYU sophomore guard Robert Wright III said. “They were making us turn the ball over early and they were getting in transition, getting a lot of easy layups. They started their run early and then just kept the lead. They go easy layups, got out in transition for wide open threes, and they have good shooters.”

AJ Dybantsa led BYU with 23 points but was just 7 of 21 from the field and 1 of 8 from the 3-point line, also adding six rebounds and six assists. Wright scored 21 points and Aleksej Kostic was 4 of 7 from the 3-point line, scoring.

Cincinnati (17-13 overall, 9-8 Big 12) has won six of its past seven games. The Bearcats had five players in double figures, led by Jizzle James and John Celestine with 18 each. Cincinnati had 24 assists, the same number of field goals managed by the Cougars.

Richie Saunders went down with a season-ending ACL injury Jan. 14 on the first offensive series of the game, so BYU has had six games to figure out how to play without him. Other than an upset of No. 6 Iowa State at the Marriott Center, the Cougars have shown little improvement in that area.

“We’re going through it, there’s no other way to say it,” Young said. “It’s frustrating. Some of the turnovers were head scratching for me. That was really where the game went south was in terms of our decision making, just really unforced turnovers. It was honestly uncharacteristic for our guys and that was disappointing.

“It was hard to overcome that, especially in the first half. I actually thought we caught a little bit of a rhythm and then we couldn’t get our spread going because we kept turning the basketball over. That was really tough to overcome. They go for 21-4 on points off turnovers and that’s just kind of the ball game. Especially on a night we’re not shooting the basketball very well.”

All Cincinnati needed was 14-2 run to stretch out to a 17-8 advantage and led by as many as 16 before settling for a 43-31 lead at the break.

Ten BYU turnovers – five by Dybantsa – allowed the home team to get out for easy baskets in transition and the Cougars failed to find shooters at the 3-point line in the halfcourt. Cincinnati turned those ten BYU miscues into a 13-0 advantage in points off turnovers and an 8-0 mark in fast break points. The Bearcats, who came into the game shooting 33% from distance, were 6 of 13 (48%) from the 3-point line in the first half, including one from 7-foot-2 center Moustapha Thiam.

Wright knocked down a 3-pointer and Dybantsa scored as BYU cut the deficit to seven, 43-36, to open the second half. It was 48-40 when Dybantsa made two foul shots with 17:44 to go, but a 13-4 burst from the Bearcats pushed their lead out to 61-44 with 13:25 to play and the Cougars showed little fight left in them to make a run.

BYU (20-10, 8-9) concludes Big 12 regular-season play at the Marriott Center with a Senior Night game against No. 10 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders beat the Cougars in Lubbock 84-71 on Jan. 17 but were upset by TCU 73-65 on Tuesday.

“We just need to fix things,” Wright said. “We get a day off, so probably get some rest that is much needed because it’s been a long travel, and then get back just figure things out on film. It’s a long season. That’s what March is all about. It’s kind of a reset because no matter if you’re the one seed or the 16 seed, it’s one game at a time.”