PHILADELPHIA – Trailing by eleven with five minutes, 13 seconds left to play in the second half, it appeared the Owls three game winning streak was coming to an end. The student section at Liacouras Center, wearing the complimentary t-shirts from white-out night, was silent.
When the clock hit triple zeros and the scoreboard read 63-58, the student section broke out into its raucous “I Believe That We Have Won” chant.
A 11-0 run in the final five minutes of the game helped Temple (15-8, 9-3) defeat Connecticut, win its fourth straight game, and move into first place in the American Athletic Conference.
Redshirt-junior Daniel Dingle made three three-pointers to help the Owls cut the deficit to two with 3:45 left in the second half.
“I was trying to help us get back in the game,” Dingle said. “My confidence was high. After practice, me and Quenton we get up shots every day. I’m putting in the work and got lucky tonight.”
Senior guard Quenton DeCosey got an offensive rebound off a miss by senior forward Jaylen Bond and scored from just inside the foul line to tie the game at 56 with 1:49 left. DeCosey scored nine points in the final two minutes including 5-of-5 from the free throw line to secure the victory for the Owls. After scoring 14 first half points, the Union, N.J. native had not scored until his game tying basket.
Quenton DeCosey's thoughts on Temple's place in the conference.
“Once we made the run, got back in the game and we were down like two with I think two minutes left, I definitely told myself, ‘this is my time to takeover and make plays for myself and my teammates to try to get us the win,’” DeCosey said.
The Huskies re-took the lead on two made free throws by graduate forward Shonn Miller, but relinquished it on the ensuing possession. DeCosey drove to hit right and threw up a layup from behind his head. The shot counted and a foul by redshirt-junior guard Rodney Purvis allowed DeCosey to make the go-ahead free throw.
Temple’s defense secured the win in the final minute. Sophomore guard Daniel Hamilton’s offensive rebound gave UConn another possession with 51 seconds left in the game. Temple trapped Hamilton on the wing, knocked the ball loose, and took possession after junior guard Josh Brown dove on the floor and called timeout.
The Owls caught a break when Purvis double-dribbled coming out of a timeout with 14 seconds left. UConn, trailing by three had a chance to tie the game. Turnovers plagued the Huskies in the final minutes.
“We draw up plays and I wish I could get out on the court, but I can’t so we got to execute,” coach Kevin Ollie said. “We can’t turn the ball over. We turned the ball over a couple of times and then we didn’t make layups…But at the end of the day, I can’t make the layups, I can’t make the passes, but at the end of the day I got to get the right player out there, the right personnel out there.”
Temple is now 7-4 in games that go to overtime or are decided by a zero to five point margin. While coach Fran Dunphy is happy his team is getting wins in close games, he doesn’t want his team to “live on the edge” as much against South Florida Sunday.
"We need to continue to get better as a team,” Dunphy said. “Be better defensively. I thought we took care of the ball pretty well in the second half. I think our timely shooting is bailing us out. I’d like us to be more consistent.”