Cincinnati — UConn showed up to a rock fight Thursday night armed with a bag of pebbles.

The outcome was predictable.

The first couple shots hit the Huskies right between the eyes, staggering them. They never fully recovered.

UConn left battered and beaten up, limping out of Fifth Third Arena after suffering a brutal 70-58 loss to Cincinnati in an American Athletic Conference game.

"We've got to be tough in atmospheres like this," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said. "They manhandled us in the fight category. It started with the first three possessions and they got three offensive rebounds. You try to establish something in the first five minutes and we didn't.

"It just snowballed after that."

A disgusted Ollie called timeout and pulled his starting frontcourt about two minutes into the game. It really didn't matter.

UConn (11-8, 4-3) was already in full self-destruct mode.

Cincinnati (15-5, 6-2), set on avenging a six-point loss in Hartford on Jan. 10, never let up, leading for the entire game and extending the gap to as many as 14.

UConn crumbled under defensive pressure from a tenacious 2-3 match-up zone, committing 17 turnovers that led to 15 points. The Bearcats routinely wrestled away offensive rebounds and scored 19 second-chance points. They shot 48.9 percent, a season high allowed by the Huskies.

"Way too many turnovers, man," senior Ryan Boatright said. "They flat out punked us. They punked us on the rebounding and they punked us in the first five minutes. We were just too fragile out there as a team."

Boatright finally broke free in the second half, scoring 20 of his 22 points. But he went just 6-for-17 from the field and had four turnovers.

Not that anyone else played any better. It was a total team failure in what UConn billed as a must-have game. The Huskies lacked composure and poise in front of a hostile crowd of 11,092.

Tempers flared at times.

During one heated exchange in the second half,, Cincinnati's Troy Caupain barked at Rodney Purvis after a steal and fast-break layup. Purvis responded by shoving the sophomore. Both earned technical fouls. Later, Caupain, who had 20 points, was ejected for taunting again.

The Huskies showed more fight in the second half, cutting the deficit to eight (66-58), but the physical Bearcats stood their ground. Without a reliable inside presence, UConn fired away from the perimeter, taking 26 3-pointers overall and making just eight. Sophomore Amida Brimah finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four blocks while freshman Daniel Hamilton added 11 points and six rebounds.

UConn played a brutal first half.

It would have been disastrous except the Huskies trailed by only eight (30-22). The deficit certainly could have been much worse.

The Huskies committed three turnovers in their first four possessions and allowed Cincinnati to wrestle away a pair of offensive rebounds, turning them into 3-pointers for a 6-0 lead. Ollie quickly called a timeout and made some changes.

"We came out with no energy," Hamilton said. "From there, it just went downhill."

They had more turnovers (13) than field goals (8-for-25 from the field in the first half.) The mistakes came from a variety of sources.

Boatright looked uncomfortable. He missed all six shots and scored his only two points from the foul line with 2:10 left. He was coming off a career-high 28 points in Sunday's win over South Florida.

Cincinnati scored 22 of its points off turnovers (11) and second-chance baskets (11). The tone had been set.

The Huskies left the arena a frustrated bunch. They head to Houston, where they'll play on Sunday.

"It's just frustrating, because I know how good we can be," Boatright said, "and I know how good we are capable of playing. To go out there and perform like that as a team, myself included, is just frustrating."

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe