Cincinnati ? Steve Logan 41, Southern Mississippi 37.

The sensational guard scored a career high and single-handedly outscored an opponent Friday night as No. 5 Cincinnati rolled to an 89-37 victory that left everyone but Logan with one of those amazed grins.

“Forty-one to 37. Isn’t that what he beat us by?” Southern Mississippi coach James Green said. “That’s got to be some kind of record.”

It was some kind of night.

Shooting three-pointers over flat-footed defenders, Logan scored 18 points as Cincinnati (24-2, 11-1 Conference USA) took control in the first half. He then led a 31-point run in the second half that had the capacity crowd on its feet, erupting with each basket.

His pull-up jumper made it 83-33 with 4:42 to play and left him with 41 points seven more than Southern Mississippi at that point. He got a standing ovation when he left the floor with 4:25 to play.

Logan was 12-of-18 from the field, including 8-of-13 on three-pointers, against the conference’s worst perimeter defense.

“Aw, man, he put on a show today,” said Cincinnati center Donald Little, who had a close-up view as Logan’s shots slipped through the nets. “He embarrassed those guys.”

Southern Mississippi (7-16, 2-11) shouldn’t feel so bad. The Bearcats have one of the nation’s top defenses, and even they have problems stopping Logan when he gets on a shooting tear in practice.

“I see him in practice when he gets in those zones,” coach Bob Huggins said. “We guard pretty good, and he has days like that when he makes everything. I wasn’t surprised.”

Cincinnati moved a half-game ahead of Marquette for the conference regular-season championship by easily beating the last-place team. Southern Mississippi has lost five in a row and nine of 10.

The Golden Eagles haven’t beaten Cincinnati since 1990, losing nine in a row to the Bearcats. Once Logan started shooting, they had no chance to break the streak.

Brad Richardson made a three-pointer and a fastbreak layup that put Southern Mississippi ahead 5-2, but Cincinnati dominated the rest of the way by taking advantage of the conference’s worst perimeter defense.

Logan scored 21 in the 31-point run that spanned 11 minutes, 42 seconds in the second half, capping another remarkable game against a team from Mississippi. He scored 40 his previous career high in a 90-56 win over Mississippi State on Dec. 21.

Elvin Mims led Southern Mississippi with 11 points. The Golden Eagles shot only 24.2 percent from the field, going 16-for-66.

Southern Mississippi has a bad combination: poor perimeter defense, poor shooting on offense. The Golden Eagles are last in the conference in three-point defense and in scoring, averaging 61.4 points per game.