Weyinmi Efejuku of the Friars, left, tries to drive past Bearcats defender Yancy Gates during the first half of last night’s Big East Conference game in Cincinnati.

AP / Al Behrman

CINCINNATI — Greater challenges lie just days away, but the win the Providence College basketball team grabbed last night at Fifth Third Arena couldn’t be any bigger for this current group of Friars.

After building confidence throughout December and into 2009, the Friars kept rolling and posted their first road victory of the season, a convincing 87-79 win over Cincinnati. The triumph was PC’s seventh in eight games and gives the program its first 3-0 start in Big East play in 20 seasons.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Sharaud Curry. “The seniors haven’t experienced this. To be 3-0 says a lot about our team. Teams have to start looking at us as being a factor in the Big East this year.”

While beating St. John’s, DePaul and Cincinnati may not send shivers down the spines of the nine ranked squads in the conference, the Friars deserve to be perfect. They ran out to a 42-35 halftime lead, went up by 13 points early in the second half and then did everything they needed to hold off two strong Bearcats comebacks.

The biggest keys, obviously, came on offense. The Friars shot the ball as well as they have all season, making 53 percent from the floor and were an impressive 12-for-24 tries from behind the 3-point line. That explosive output placed four Friars in double figures, and four other players scored eight points. Weyinmi Efejuku led PC with 18 points and 7 assists and had no turnovers.

PC improved to 11-4 overall while Cincinnati lost for the third straight game and fell to 10-5 overall and 0-2 in the conference. The Friars’ next two games come against some of the Big East’s iron when they visit No. 9 Georgetown on Saturday and host No. 18 Marquette a week from Saturday.

“This team showed that its confidence was probably at an all-time high,” said coach Keno Davis. “To be able to go on the road and feel that nobody is talking about us right now was key. Just try to sneak up on some people and play pressure-free.”

Deonta Vaughn and Mike Williams both scored 20 points for the Bearcats, whose coach, Mick Cronin, was obviously not happy with his team’s defense. “At the end of the day, you have to win at home. You can’t give up 87 points at home. That’s totally unacceptable.”

While PC’s Curry, Efejuku and Davis wore wide smiles when they addressed the press afterward, the coach noted that 3-0 is just a small, first step, with bigger challenges ahead.

“It’s just such a long season,” said Davis. “You don’t have a whole lot of time to enjoy it. You look ahead at your schedule and you see a lot of teams with numbers in front of them. It’s just an amazing year for the Big East. We’re going to have enough chances to get big victories just about every night.”

The first half could not have gone smoother for the Friars. Cincinnati’s defense had few answers for PC’s varied offense as the Friars shot 59 percent from the floor and 43 percent (6-for-14) from behind the 3-point line. Seven of the nine players who took the court scored in the half, with Marshon Brooks (8) and Efejuku (7) leading the way.

The Bearcats got 10 points from the dangerous Vaughn, but they shot only 39 percent and heard plenty of boos as they left the court at the break.

PC led quickly, 7-3, but began getting hurt off the boards, and the Bearcats rallied to build a 19-14 lead. Trailing by 26-23, Providence scored nine straight points to build a 32-26 lead. A nice fast break that ended with a Randall Hanke slam and a Brooks 3-pointer highlighted the run.

UC’s Vaughn canned two jumpers to keep his team going, but threes by Efejuku and Brooks kept the Friars rolling, and a Jon Kale dunk off a nifty Efejuku feed gave the Friars a 40-33 lead. A strong defensive stop in the final 15 seconds preserved a 42-35 halftime lead for the visitors.

The Friars extended the lead to what appeared to be a commanding 55-42 advantage after a Brian McKenzie 3-pointer, and they still led by 12 (65-53) with 10:15 left. But when the expected home-team run came, the Friars buckled.

Cincinnati ripped off a 13-1 spurt that ended with Dion Dixon tying the game at 66-66 with a baseline jumper. The two shots that no doubt left the Friars scratching their heads came when Rashad Bishop, a 27 percent 3-point shooter, sank two huge threes. PC answered, however. This time a 13-4 run opened a 79-70 lead.

The Bearcats pushed once more, with Williams converting a three-point play and Vaughn scoring to make it 81-79 with 2:11 left. After a Geoff McDermott offensive rebound off an Efejuku miss kept the ball in PC’s hands, Curry found Jeff Xavier in the right corner. Xavier canned a 3-pointer at the 1:53 mark that gave the Friars some breathing room.

“Jeff knocks it down and I looked up and I didn’t think it put us up five. I thought it was a three- or four-point game. I asked if that score was right,” said Davis.

It was, and when Dixon and Larry Davis missed threes at the other end, the Friars had answered all of Cincinnati’s runs.

kmcnarar@projo.com