Tulsa handled East Carolina in business like fashion, and in the process, put an explanation point to the fact that there will not be a fourth consecutive losing season or a seventh consecutive loss to ECU.

With James Flanders and D’Angelo Brewer churning out large chunks of yardage and combining for 361 yards rushing, Tulsa dominated East Carolina 45-24 on Saturday night in front of 17,557 fans at H.A. Chapman Stadium.

The win for Tulsa (7-2, 4-1 AAC) was a thorough dismantling of a talented but enigmatic East Carolina (3-6, 1-4) team, and in the process, showed further proof that the Golden Hurricane is a legitimate threat to win the AAC.

“They beat us six straight times, so we talked about that all week,” said TU quarterback Dane Evans. “We wanted to do something that anybody here has never done. No one on our staff or in our locker room had beaten ECU, and we finally did. That was a big goal for us this week.”

Flanders, coming off a 249-yard, five touchdown performance at Memphis, started the game and finished with 181 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, while Brewer, healthy after missing the previous game to an ankle injury, finished with 180 yard and a touchdown on 23 carries.

There really weren’t any real negatives in the game. The Golden Hurricane got out to a 14-0 lead, scoring on their first two possessions, didn’t turn the ball over, led 24-7 at halftime, and turned back the Pirates when they looked like they might get back into the game.

East Carolina star receiver Zay Jones had a good game against Tulsa, but the star ECU receiver got most of his yardage when the game was out of reach. He did have a 51-yard touchdown catch to narrow the margin to 14-7 in the first quarter, but otherwise, his stats were mostly without impact.

Jones finished with 206 yards on 13 catches to increase his season totals to 127 catches for 1,300 yards.

Complementing the running game was Dane Evans throwing to his customary top targets Keevan Lucas and Josh Atkinson. Lucas had seven catches for 91 yards and a touchdown, while Atkinson led TU with 10 catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns, including a 64-yarder. Evans completed 22 of 38 passes for 274 yards.

A series each on offense and defense typified the game and the resolve of the Golden Hurricane.

At the end of the first half, Atkinson scored on 3-yard touchdown pass from Evans with 24 seconds left in the half to cap a 13-play, 80-yard drive that took TU just over three minutes and put Tulsa up 24-7 at halftime.

“The drive right before half was big, going in,” said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery.

On defense, early in the fourth quarter, ECU had first-and-goal from the 1-yard-line. A touchdown would have cut a 38-17 lead to two touchdowns with over 11 minutes remaining.

Instead, Tulsa stuffed two running plays and forced an incomplete pass before linebacker Matt Linscott sacked ECU quarterback Gardner Minshew for a 14-yard loss.

“That was pretty special. We were relentless,” Linscott said of the goal line stand. “We kept fighting, we never gave up. We never were thinking, oh, they’re going to score here.”

The tandem of Flanders and Brewer has been pretty special all season. Flanders topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season with 1,080 yards, while Brewer increased his season total to 984 yards.

“It’s incredible. Obviously, as a quarterback, it makes it that much easier in the passing game,” Evans said of the running back duo.

“The offensive line is great. Not good, but great,” Flanders added.