Men's Basketball: No. 23 UConn Shoots Horribly, Falls to Temple on Late Shot

Daniel Hamilton had an off night.

UConn did as a whole, really.

The Huskies shot 32 percent from the field and allowed a Temple bucket with 2.5 seconds to go, as the Owls topped the Huskies 55-53 at the XL Center Tuesday night.

Shonn Miller was the bright spot of the UConn offense. The grad transfer had 18 points to go along with seven rebounds. Rodney Purvis finished with 11 points. No one else reached double figures.

Hamilton shot 2 of 13 from the field. He did not score for the first 31:27 of the game, which did little to help the Huskies' attempt to build momentum.

After Hamilton aired a 3-pointer and Temple responded with the game's first three points, UConn went on an 11-0 run. The Huskies looked in control and ready to make short work of the owls.

Is it ever that easy?

Temple stormed back, as UConn endured an awful shooting half. While Miller got into double figures early and Rodney Purvis shot well, the Huskies shot 32 percent from the field in the first half. UConn led 25-24 nearing the half, but Temple came back to take a 30-27 lead into the break.

Somewhat curiously, Purvis sat for two stretches of about 3:30 each in the first half. He did not play the final 3:28 of the half.

UConn took a while to find some sort of a rhythm in the second half. The Huskies kept struggling to shoot the ball.

Jalen Adams took over about midway through the second half, scoring seven straight points to help UConn cut into a 40-32 lead. Hamilton finally made a bucket with 8:33 to play to cut the lead to 46-45. Two free throws from Shonn Miller shortly thereafter gave UConn its first lead since late in the first half.

The game was back and forth from thereon out. UConn had chances for big defensive stops and didn't get them. It had open shots that would electrify the XL Center that they missed.

UConn tied the game with two Hamilton free throws with 30.6 seconds to play, but gave Temple the opportunity to basically hold for last shot.

Josh Brown got into the lane and nailed a shot with 2.5 seconds left, securing the win for Temple.

UConn plays Memphis at Gampel Saturday night.

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