Men's Basketball Falls to UConn in the Final Seconds, 64-63

Sunday, February 19

Liacouras Center

4:00 p.m.

Temple University

14-14, 5-10

UConn

14-12, 9-5

UConn

Temple

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Men's Basketball Falls to UConn in the Final Seconds, 64-63

2.19.17 | Men's Basketball

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PHILADELPHIA - With three seconds left, UConn's Jalen Adams made a layup to hand Temple men's basketball a heartbreaking loss, 64-63 at the Liacouras Center on Sunday afternoon. The Owls (14-14, 5-10) had led for the entire second half and for nearly the entire game until the final bucket by the Huskies (14-12, 9-5).

Rodney Purvis scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the final eight minutes for UConn as the Huskies erased a 10-point Temple lead. The Owls led by three on a Quinton Rose trey with 2:32 remaining, but did not score again. Adams got a steal and two free throws to put the Huskies within one at 1:05, and then hit the game-winning layup after Temple had a missed opportunity on its own end.

Four players finished in double figures in scoring for the Owls, led by Daniel Dingle with 17 points, six rebounds and six assists. His efforts made him the first Temple player to lead the team in all three categories since Khalif Wyatt in 2013.

Shizz Alston, Jr. tied Dingle for game-high assist honors with six, also scoring 11 points and grabbing five boards. Damion Moore was a perfect 5-of-5 in scoring 11 points, which came all in a row for Temple from the end of the first half through the first five minutes of the second. Rounding out the double-figure scorers was Alani Moore II, also with 11 points.

Temple was tied or in the lead for all but a total of one minute in the first half, but never led by more than six points. The Owls' three-point shooting helped keep them ahead of the Huskies, as they hit 5-of-9 from long range. Both Dingle and Alani Moore II were 2-of-2 from distance, and Dingle led all scorers at halftime with 12 points.

After hitting three of their first four shots from beyond the arc, the Owls took their largest lead of 17-11 with 11:34 left in the first half. UConn answered with a 6-0 run to tie it at 17-17, one of four first-half ties. Both teams had another short run, leading to the fourth tie at 26-26 with 3:27 left.

Temple closed the half on a 9-3 run to take a 35-29 lead into the break. Four different players scored in the scoring spurt, capped by a Damion Moore layup on a Dingle assist.

Moore continued his momentum into the second half, scoring all nine of the Owls' points in the first five minutes. His jumper at the 18-minute mark gave Temple its largest lead of nine, 40-31, but the Huskies then used an 8-0 run to pull within a point at 16:09.

With UConn just three points behind at 13:48, Alani Moore II got back-to-back buckets including his third three-pointer for an eight-point, 49-41 lead at 12:44. The Owls matched that eight-point lead twice more before taking their first double-digit lead at 56-46 with 8:29 left on an Alston jumper.

The 10-point lead was short-lived for Temple, as the Huskies' Purvis scored seven points in an 11-2 run that put UConn within a point, 58-57 with 4:29 remaining. After Purvis drained a trey at the three-minute mark for the first tie of the second half at 60-60, Rose answered with a trey at 2:32 that would be the Owls' last points of the game.

Dingle was fouled by Purvis with 41 seconds left to earn a 1-and-1 opportunity, but missed the front end. The Owls tallied fouls five and six of the second half to slow UConn down, but Adams hit the dagger with three seconds left and a desperation attempt by Temple missed the mark.

Temple has two games left in its three-game homestand, and will next face UCF at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 22 (ESPNU / 1210 AM WPHT).

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