Temple Falls 77-62 to UConn in American Athletic Conference Semifinals

Saturday, March 12

Orlando, Fla.

3:00 p.m.

Temple University

21-11

UConn (American Semifinals)

23-10

UConn

Temple

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Temple Falls 77-62 to UConn in American Athletic Conference Semifinals

3.12.16 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

ORLANDO - Top-seeded Temple's four-game win streak and American Athletic Conference Tournament championship hopes came to an end on Saturday afternoon in a 77-62 loss to fifth-seeded UConn (23-10). The Owls (21-11) started strong but later suffered a long first-half slump and were never able to recover.

The Owls will now wait until Sunday to find out where the postseason will take them.

The Huskies shot nearly 52 percent for the game, having only brief stretches where they struggled. Temple shot just 36 percent, but recovered well after hitting just 28 percent of its shots in the first half.

Senior Jaylen Bond led the Owls with his 10th double-double of the season, adding 10 rebounds to 17 points and hitting 7-of-9 from the field. Senior Quenton DeCosey scored 14 points, senior Devin Coleman put up 13 and junior Josh Brown finished with 10.

UConn got 19 points from both Daniel Hamilton and Shonn Miller, with Hamilton adding 11 rebounds.

After a strong start to the first half for the Owls, things took a big turn for the worse. Temple had an early 7-0 run and led 12-4 on a Brown three-pointer at 14:05, but the Owls made just one of their next 10 attempts as UConn took control the rest of the way.

The Huskies went on a 19-4 run and led by as many as 16 with three minutes left, 35-19. The Owls showed some life in the final minutes, hitting 5-of-6 free throws and closing the period on a 9-4 run to cut the deficit to 11 at halftime, 39-28.

After missing five of six shots to start the game, UConn went 15-for-23 the rest of the way (65 percent) and finished the half out-shooting Temple 55.2 percent to 28.1 percent. The shooting percentage for the Owls' was their worst of the season in the first half, and they were out-rebounded 23-14.

Bond had nine points to lead Temple at the break, while Coleman came off the bench for seven.

The Owls hit 4-of-4 field goals to start the second half, coming with seven points, 46-39 at 16:13. UConn pushed its lead back to 13 points before another Temple run eventually got the Owls to within six. Down just 55-49 with 9:44 left, Temple missed its next three shots and five of its next six, letting the Huskies pull back ahead by 11.

Temple made one more push to get within seven near the four-minute mark, but the Huskies controlled the rest of the game, twice pushing their lead back to 17 points.

Box Score (PDF) | Press Conference