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The Cincinnati Bearcats experienced arguably their most abysmal loss of the season Saturday at Rutgers University.

Fresh off of dropping a pair of hard-fought battles against two of the premier teams in the Big East — West Virginia and No. 3/4 Syracuse — the Cats laid an egg in Piscataway, N.J.

Rutgers is no pushover at home, touting wins over two top-10 teams Connecticut and Florida, but the Knights were coming off a loss to Big East bottom-dweller DePaul.

Cincinnati hit just 35.7 percent of its shots and dominated in the paint, as the Scarlet Knights poured in 30 points to UC’s 12.

The magnitude of the defeat is escalated, because this contest on paper appeared to be the beginning of Cincy’s more manageable slate of games in the Big East gauntlet.

“We’re soft,” said UC head coach Mick Cronin. “The going gets tough in the Big East, and we are not tough enough to win a game right now.”

The Bearcats only have themselves to blame after committing 14 turnovers, which is their most since Nov. 21, 2011 — the fourth game of the season against Northwestern State.

Cincy (15-7, 5-4) opened league play, giving the ball away less than 10 times through its first seven games, but has averaged 12.5 in its past two outings.

Rutgers cashed in those miscues for 19 points, with 16 coming in transition.

In the final minute of Saturday’s game, guards Dion Dixon and JaQuon Parker threw up two air balls from behind the arc that epitomized the team’s performance.

The Bearcats appeared disinterested and lacked any remote sense of urgency for 40 minutes.

“[Rutgers] got every loose ball. They got every loose rebound,” said UC assistant head coach Larry Davis. “I would say our mental attitude was below 50 [percent]. “Mentally today, we weren’t tough enough.”

Cincy’s performance was flat from the opening whistle, which correlated with the Scarlet Knights pounding the offensive glass and scoring high-percentage shots in the lane.

“We turned the ball over and gave them layups,” Davis said. “When you start off the game that way, it’s going to be a struggle all night long.”

With the loss, UC must rue another missed opportunity as it dropped into a three-way tie for seventh place in the league. A would have put them in third place.

The Bearcats had nearly a week to prep for this match-up, but failed to capitalize on their allotted time.

Cincinnati hosts DePaul at Fifth Third Arena Saturday with even more time to get in the right mindset for a crucial conference game.

“We got a group in that locker room that has got to get its mental focus back to where it was after the Xavier game,” Davis said. “The guys knew we were down to eight guys and that everybody had to play as good as they could if we were going to win games during that stretch.”

The Bearcats followed up those suspensions by rallying together to win 10 of 11 games. As of late, however, they’ve resembled a complacent squad.

“One of the dangers when you have some success is it erodes you,” Davis said. “You lose that mental edge, and you don’t play with that same desperation.”