For 12 minutes, the Lincoln Blue Tigers were able to hang in there with the No. 1 team in the nation.
Problem is, the Northwest Missouri Bearcats looked like the defending national champion, and Ryan Hawkins looked like a future national player of the year.
Hawkins dropped 43 points on Lincoln, leading Northwest Missouri to an 87-53 rout Thursday night at Jason Gym to open Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association play.
"We were on the defensive all night," Lincoln coach John Moseley said, "just trying to figure out what gave us the best chance to defend them."
Hawkins scored on each of Northwest Missouri's first three possessions, starting with a shot from the left block and then back-to-back 3-pointers. He added a 3 from the left wing to score the Bearcats' first 11 points in the opening five minutes of the game.
"Our goal is to try and make them a 2-point shooting team," Moseley said. "I was disappointed with the start because we gave up three 3s in the first five minutes of the game.
"You want to do your best to make them a 2-point shooting team. But they don't take 2-point jump shots. They take layups and 3s, and they're good at it."
Hawkins finished one point shy of a program single-game record, which he set earlier this season against Southern Nazarene.
"Good, he didn't get his career high against us," Moseley said with a laugh.
The Bearcats lead 16-9, but Lincoln bounced back and got some defensive stops. Cameron Potts drove the lane for a layup and Jonell Burton knocked down a 3 off a turnover to close the gap to 16-14.
Potts added another drive and layup, and Jonell Burton hit a tough shot over Hawkins to keep the Blue Tigers behind by two points midway through the first half.
"We had the game 20-18, and we had four straight bad possessions offensively that you can't have against them," Moseley said. "You've got to try and keep pace."
Northwest Missouri went on a 14-2 run - getting nine points from Hawkins - to build a 34-20 lead. The Bearcats led by double digits the rest of the game.
"Many of the mistakes we've made are little things that cost you games," Moseley said. "We've had three games earlier this season that have come down to one possession or gone into overtime.
"There are going to be a lot more one-, two- or three-possession games than there will be this type of game."
Lincoln trailed 42-25 at halftime, getting a friendly roll on a shot by Jonell Burton in the final minute of the half.
Northwest Missouri stretched its lead to 31 points with a breakaway dunk by Hawkins.
Then, as Hawkins tried to go for a dunk on the Bearcats' next possession, he was fouled, and Lincoln added onto that with a technical foul. Hawkins made all four free throws to put Northwest Missouri ahead 76-41 with 7:14 to play.
It was Lincoln's second technical foul of the game.
"I will fix the technical fouls tomorrow in practice," Moseley said. "If me fixing it tomorrow costs us on Saturday, I'm OK with that, because our program isn't going to operate like that."
Hawkins left the game after making his free throws, coming up shy of the 50 points Anthony Virdure scored against the Bearcats during the 2016-17 season in Jefferson City.
As far as top performances by opposing players, Moseley said he ranks Hawkins' performance up there with Michael Beasley's 40-point night for Kansas State during the 2007-08 season, when Moseley was an assistant coach at Winston-Salem State.
"We were walking off the court at halftime, and he had four points," Moseley said of Beasley. "He had been in foul trouble. I remember walking off the court as an assistant, and the announcer said, 'Michael Beasley becomes the 18th player in KSU history to score 40 points in a game.'"
Diego Bernard added 17 points and nine rebounds for Northwest Missouri (8-0), while Wes Dreamer also scored in double figures with 12 points. The Bearcats shot 54.3 percent from the floor and were 28-of-31 at the free-throw line.
Jonell Burton led the Blue Tigers with 18 points and eight rebounds. Potts finished with 12 points and Marcell Burton played all 40 minutes, putting up 11 points.
Lincoln (2-5) will host Missouri Western (4-5) at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Griffons opened MIAA play Thursday with a 67-63 road win against Central Missouri.
"The good thing about this game is it's over," Moseley said. "It counts as one loss, regardless if you lose by one or 34. And in league play, you go right back at it in 36 hours."