Armoni Brooks scored 21 points and Rob Gray added 19 points and 11 assists as No. 23 Houston led by 49 points at halftime and cruised to a 109-58 win over hapless East Carolina on Sunday afternoon in an American Athletic Conference game at Texas Southern University's H&PE Arena, the Cougars' home away from home this season.

Houston won for the sixth time in its past seven games and remains two games behind Cincinnati and a game in back of Wichita State in the AAC standings with two regular-season games to play.

The Cougars (22-6, 12-4 AAC) set an AAC conference-game record for points in a half with 62 and produced their highest-scoring first half since racking up 69 in 131-62 win against Florida Tech on Nov. 22, 2005.

Corey Davis Jr. added 16 points for Houston and Gabe Grant hit for 12 as the Cougars outshot East Carolina 66.7 percent to 37.3 percent and scored more points in the first half than the Pirates did the whole game.

B.J. Tyson led the Pirates with 24 points while Shawn Williams and Isaac Fleming added 14 and 13 points, respectfully. East Carolina (10-17, 4-12) suffered its second straight blowout defeat, but this game is one that will be hard to forget.

The contest was effectively over almost as soon as it began. Trailing 3-2 just 2:37 into the contest, Houston scored 30 of the next 32 points in building a 32-5 lead.

And the pain was just beginning for East Carolina, which trailed by 30 points after a layup by the Cougars' Breaon Brady with 9:59 to play in the half, by 41 when Gray pumped in a 3-pointer with 3:23 remaining and by 49 points, 62-13, at halftime.

Houston outshot the Pirates 74.2 percent to 21.7 percent in the first half as the Cougars made as many shots (23) as East Carolina attempted in the first 20 minutes. Houston converted 12 of its 16 3-pointers in the first half, outrebounded the Pirates 22-6 and recorded 18-1 dominance in assists.

Brooks led Houston with 18 points in the half while Gray had 17 by making all five of his shots from the floor (including all three 3-point attempts) and each of his four free throws. Gary also had 10 assists at intermission.

Tyson's five points led the Pirates at the break.

-- Field Level Media