Dallas ? When Oklahoma gathered for its pregame huddle at midcourt, the Illinois-Chicago players were already there  and the Flames weren’t about to move.

Some bumping and shoving led to snickers from UIC players and coaches, who were proud of their take-that approach. The Sooners didn’t let that good feeling last long.

Aaron McGhee threw around his body for 26 points and 12 rebounds, and Hollis Price shook off two early injuries to score 17 points, carrying the second-seeded Sooners past the Flames, 71-63, Friday in the West Regional. Oklahoma will play Xavier next after the Musketeers beat Hawaii 70-58.

“Whenever we step on the court, we feel like we own it,” said Daryan Selvy, who scored nine straight points during an 18-3 OU run that broke the game open midway through the first half. “So they were invading our territory. We were serious. I don’t know what their intention was.”

Martell Bailey, who led the shoves for UIC despite being the team’s smallest player, said the team’s intention was to let the Sooners (28-5) know the Flames (20-14) weren’t to be taken lightly.

“Coach told us not to fear anyone,” Bailey said. “I felt we were there first, so we shouldn’t have to move.”

No matter how tough they talked, UIC simply didn’t have anyone who could handle the 6-foot-10, 250-pound McGhee. He hit a short shot for the game’s first basket and had 13 points in each half, some from long range. He finished one point shy of his season high.

While OU wasn’t always smooth on offense  going 2-for-18 on three-pointers  the Sooners’ defense prevented UIC from finding a rhythm.

The Flames, winners of the Horizon League tournament, were 5-of-22 on three-pointers after being the sixth-most accurate team in the country from long range. They went nearly nine minutes between field goals during OU’s big first-half run.

“We took away their strength and forced them to play a style they’re not accustomed to,” said McGhee, who said the Sooners try to show “superior dominance” with their pregame huddle ritual.

OU has won nine straight games, four since coach Kelvin Sampson had his players watch clips from their 70-68 overtime loss to 13th-seeded Indiana State in the opening round of last year’s NCAAs. Price said the video kept them focused last week when they won the Big 12 tournament.

As for UIC guard Jordan Kardos’ comment this week that “we’re going to show those farmers how to play city ball,” Price said that provided more amusement than motivation.

“It didn’t get under my skin,” said Price, who called teammates “farmers” in practice Thursday when they missed shots.

“It was funny.”

Price went out in the first half to have his left ankle retaped, then to have his right hamstring treated with ice. Seeing him limp to the bench was a cruel reminder of the gruesome arm injury he suffered in last year’s NCAAs.

But Price battled back each time and opened the second half with a three-pointer that put OU up by 11. Later, his jumper made it 46-38 and got the pro-Sooners crowd on its feet.

Flames leading scorer Cedric Banks, whose jumper with 0.4 seconds left in overtime won the league tournament, shot only 3-of-14.

Xavier 70, Hawaii 58

Dallas  Xavier wasn’t daunted by a double-digit deficit.

With Romain Sato and Lionel Chalmers turning up the defensive pressure in the second half, the No. 7-seeded Musketeers rallied to beat Hawaii in the first round of the West Regional.

Sato had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Chalmers forced Hawaii’s guards into a spate of turnovers as the Musketeers overcame a 12-point first-half hole.

Sato’s three-pointer at the halftime buzzer pulled Xavier (26-5) to 40-33 at the break, and he kept making big plays in the second half. It was Xavier’s first win in the tournament since beating Vanderbilt in 1997 in the first round.

The Musketeers next play No. 2-seeded Oklahoma, which beat Illinois-Chicago 71-63.

Hawaii (27-6) missed its first 11 shots of the second half, when Xavier went on a 11-1 run to take its first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

Cincinnati 90, Boston U. 52

Pittsburgh  For most of the first half, it seemed as if Steve Logan was playing Boston University by himself. What’s remarkable is that he was winning. Logan put on a dazzling display of shooting and playmaking while outscoring Boston U. by himself until well into the second half, leading top-seeded Cincinnati.

It was a typical No. 1 vs. No. 16 mismatch, with the only question being whether Logan would score more points than the Terriers (22-10). He didn’t, settling for 27 before leaving with 7:27 remaining after scoring only four points in the second half.

It was coach Bob Huggins’ 500th career victory  he is 500-171 at Akron and Cincinnati  and very few were as easy as this one.

Logan, the All-American guard, had been in a shooting slump lately, but all that ended during a remarkable scoring burst late in the first half that turned what already was a one-sided Cincinnati advantage into an almost embarrassingly big lead.

With the Bearcats (31-3) up 23-8, he began what might be called Logan’s run with a long three-pointer, the first of seven consecutive shots he would hit. Four were three-pointers, each of them longer than the last.

UCLA 80, Mississippi 58

Pittsburgh  Billy Knight made three straight three-pointers to open the second half as UCLA advanced to the second round of the West Regional. The eighth-seeded Bruins (20-11), who entered the tournament playing their worst ball this season, looked like a team capable of making a run deep into the tournament.

To do so, they’ll have to get by top-seeded Cincinnati in the second round Sunday. Behind Steve Logan’s 27 points, the Bearcats rolled to a 90-52 win over 16th-seeded Boston University.

Knight finished with 21 points and freshman Dijon Thompson had 16 for the Bruins, who got a huge lift from their bench.

Led by their heralded freshmen class of Thompson, Andre Patterson and Ryan Walcott, UCLA’s reserves outscored the Bruins’ first unit 42-38.

Jason Kapono, the Bruins’ leading scorer this season, had just two points  14 under his average.