National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Temple 55, Connecticut 53
When: 8:00 PM ET, Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Where: XL Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Officials: # Jeffrey Anderson, # Ron Groover, # Ray Natili
Attendance: 11319

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Temple guard Josh Brown didn't want to call timeout. He wanted to take the last shot, so he tried to wave off coach Fran Dunphy signaling to his team from the Owls' bench.

Dunphy got his way. Ironically, so did Brown.

Knotted in a tie with No. 23 Connecticut in an American Athletic Conference road game, Dunphy diagramed a play for leading scorer Quenton DeCosey (15 points) in the timeout with 14 seconds left. As Brown set up his offense from the perimeter, he noticed the Huskies had DeCosey covered. Brown drove into the lane, executed a flashy spin move, and hit a floater over Sterling Gibbs with two seconds left to give the Owls (7-6, 2-1 American) a 55-53 upset of UConn before 11,319 at XL Center.

"I wanted to play on," Brown said. "Coach drew up a pretty decent play for our best scorer, Quenton DeCosey. But I just knew coming out of the timeout that they were going to deny him. Once I saw that, I saw a couple of seconds on the clock, put my head down, and tried to make a play -- which I did."

Brown (11 points, five assists, 37 minutes) hit a game-winning shot last season with 2.4 seconds remaining at Memphis. He said he worked on the spin move all summer.

Asked if that added a degree of difficulty, Brown said, "You could say that."

Swingman Daniel Hamilton, held to six points on 2-for-13 shooting from the field, pulled UConn (10-4, 1-1) into a tie on two free throws with 30.6 seconds remaining. But Brown had plenty of time to get the timeout and snap UConn's five-game winning streak.

"He made it all himself," Dunphy said of Brown's play. "I'm very proud of him. ... That's a terrific win for us."

Dunphy, one of 25 active Division I coaches with 500 or more career victories, won his 200th game as Owls coach.

The Huskies had not lost since falling to Maryland on Dec. 8. But UConn struggled in every aspect in this game, shooting 31.6 percent, with 10 turnovers and eight assists.

Guard Devin Coleman had 14 points as Temple placed four players in double figures. Forward Jaylen Bond also had 11.

Forward Shonn Miller led the Huskies with 18. Guard Rodney Purvis had 11. UConn missed its last seven shots to end the first half and made just one of its last 10 to end the game.

"We just never got into a flow," Miller said. "I don't know what caused it but we just didn't execute how we wanted to. We didn't come out aggressive enough. We didn't play well the whole game."

UConn entered the game shooting 50.3 percent from the floor as a team. Against Ohio State, UMass Lowell and Central Connecticut in December, the Huskies set a school record by shooting 60 percent or better in three consecutive games.

That type of production was just a distant memory against the Owls. UConn was 10 for 31 from the floor in the first half and trailed by three at halftime. After falling behind by seven, Rodney Purvis buried a 3-pointer from the left corner to cut Temple's lead to 36-32 early in the second half.

Freshman guard Jalen Adams scored seven straight Huskies points to pull UConn with three again midway through the final half. DeCosey managed to keep the Owls in front but with 8:33 left, Hamilton pulled up to hit a jumper and cut Temple's lead to 46-45. Hamilton, averaging 13.5 points, had missed his first nine and didn't score the first 31 minutes.

"I didn't see no energy (from Hamilton)," UConn coach Kevin Ollie. "I don't know what it was but I didn't see no energy until the end of the game."

NOTES: Junior F Kentan Facey (no points, four rebounds, two blocks) made his third consecutive start for the Huskies, filling in for injured C Amida Brimah. Brimah, one of the top shot blockers in the country, broke the middle finger on his right hand in practice Dec. 21 and is expected to be out until February. ... UConn was playing a third consecutive game at XL Center in Hartford, the off-campus home building for the Huskies. This is UConn's 40th season at the downtown arena, formerly the Hartford Civic Center. UConn will return to Gampel Pavilion for the first time in almost a month when the Huskies play Memphis in an AAC game Saturday.
Top Game Performances
 
Temple   Connecticut
Quenton DeCosey 15 Scoring Shonn Miller 18
Josh Brown 5 Assists Daniel Hamilton 2
Jaylen Bond 10 Rebounds Daniel Hamilton 9
Josh Brown 4 Free Throws Made Sterling Gibbs 4
Josh Brown 2 Steals Sterling Gibbs 1
Ernest Aflakpui 2 Blocks Kentan Facey 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Temple 55 38.9 7-18 6-14 9 35 4 5 8
Connecticut 53 31.6 4-20 13-14 8 29 3 2 9