Troy Caupain missed a dunk early in the second half Friday night and gave a sheepish look toward the Cincinnati bench.

It was one of the few things that went wrong for the No. 15 Bearcats during a 80-61 drumming of Tulsa in a quarterfinal round mismatch at the American Athletic Conference tournament at XL Center in Hartford, Conn.

In posting its third win of the season over the Golden Hurricane, the second-seeded Bearcats displayed efficiency on offense and typical stinginess on defense. It shot 49.2 percent from the floor, including 53.3 percent in the second half, and was 8 of 20 from the 3-point line.

Kyle Washington and Jacob Evans each sank 8 of 10 shots from the field in an effort coach Mick Cronin declared "effective." Washington led all scorers with 21 points and Evans finished with 20.

Caupain stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Washington scored 15 points in the second half, enabling Cincinnati to put Tulsa away with little difficulty. It led by 20 for most of the final 16 minutes, pushing the lead as high as 24 with 14:31 remaining.

"When I just try to dominate positioning and just understand where I'm supposed to be every time ... that's when I flourish," Washington said. "If I can do that every time, maybe I'll have that result every time."

The Bearcats hounded seventh-seeded Tulsa, which reached this point with a 66-60 win Thursday over Tulane, into 39.1 percent shooting during the first half and 42.6 for the evening. They also won the rebounding battle 35-27 while forcing 14 turnovers and committing only seven.

"I thought our defense was excellent in the first half," Cronin said. "In the second half, our offense carried us. So for us, it was a tale of two halves."

In neither of them did the Golden Hurricane (15-18) show any indication they could give the Bearcats the same kind of scare that East Carolina injected into SMU earlier Friday, when it rallied from a 24-point deficit to tie the score with 56 seconds left before the Mustangs won 81-77.

Cincinnati didn't fool around at any point in this one, establishing its first double-figure lead less than nine minutes into the game when Jarron Cumberland stroked a 3-pointer to make it 23-12. It scored the last seven points of the first half, a Kevin Johnson 3-pointer with 37 seconds remaining establishing a 40-25 advantage at intermission.

"We just want to keep on proving how good we are as a team," Washington said. "We just want to keep winning, you know?"

The Bearcats used the second half to showcase their much-improved attack over last season. They played through Washington in the post after draining six first half 3s, and Washington scored at will after halftime.

No matter what Tulsa tried -- it used a variety of zones as well as some man-to-man -- it couldn't find a scheme that could get Washington or the rest of his teammates under wraps.

If they want to pack it in, we'll shoot open jump shots," Evans said. "If they want to close out on us hard, we can either play downhill or blow by or feed our big guys like we did Kyle."

Corey Henderson came off the bench to score 15 points for the Golden Hurricane, whp were tied for second in the AAC on Feb. 1 before fading down the stretch. Sterling Taplin added 10 points and five assists.

Tulsa coach Frank Haith saluted his team's effort but said he's looking forward to watching how far Cincinnati makes it in the NCAA Tournament.

"Defensively, they're terrific. They stay between you and the basket. They play great help defense," Haith said. "Now they've got really talented offensive players. They can really shoot the ball. They have no weaknesses."

NOTES: Cincinnati is seeking its first conference tournament title since 2004, when it was a member of Conference USA. The Bearcats have played in just one conference tournament title game, in 2012 as a member of the Big East. ... Since blowing an 11-point lead in the last six minutes of a 57-55 loss to Cincinnati on Feb. 1, Tulsa is 3-9. ... Bearcats G Troy Caupain and F Kyle Washington were second-team All-AAC picks.