Cincinnati 76, North Carolina State 60: Shaq Thomas tallied 15 points and Troy Caupain added 13 as the Bearcats downed the Wolfpack for their first road victory of the season.

Octavius Ellis contributed 11 points and seven rebounds for Cincinnati (9-3), which shot 53.8 percent from the field and won in Raleigh, N.C., for the first time in four tries. Gary Clark, Coreontae DeBerry and Farad Cobb chipped in with nine points apiece to round out the Bearcats’ balanced scoring effort.

Anthony Barber scored 15 points to pace N.C. State (10-4), which has split its last four games at home after winning its first eight. Kyle Washington produced 10 points and six boards while Trevor Lacey, who entered Tuesday as the ACC’s leading scorer at 18 points per game, went 1-of-8 from the field and finished with six points and five turnovers.

An early 8-0 surge – capped by a pair of buckets in transition off steals from Clark and Ellis – allowed Cincinnati to build a 12-4 advantage less than five minutes into the contest. Back-to-back baskets by DeBerry increased the gap to 10 with 10:25 left in the half while the Bearcats held the Wolfpack scoreless over the final 3:46 of the first half to take a 41-26 lead into the break.

Cincinnati hit its first four shots after intermission – including a 3-pointer from Caupain – to stretch the margin to 18 and connected on four straight field-goal attempts later in the half, running its advantage to 60-41 with 9:40 to go. N.C. State, which overcame an 18-point second-half deficit to defeat Louisiana Tech last Tuesday, managed to claw within 10 on Ralston Turner’s three-point play with 4:48 left, but Ellis’ tip-in and Thomas’ bank shot in the lane preserved the double-digit margin.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Cincinnati’s 41-point outburst in the first half marked its highest-scoring half of the season. … N.C. State went 0-for-5 from the 3-point line, the first time it has been shut out beyond the arc since going 0-for-11 against Virginia Tech on Feb. 10, 2010. … The Bearcats have held their opponents under 70 points in 16 consecutive games – the second-longest such streak in the nation.