The Owls are 16-6 (6-3 AAC) on the season and coming off a 75-67 road win at Tulane University on Saturday. The victory was much needed for Temple after a couple of tough losses - at home to the University of Cincinnati (72-68) and on the road at #12 University of Houston (73-66).
"Cincinnati, we felt like we played well enough for 35 minutes and then didn't finish the game very strongly," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. "And Houston's just a very good team. We had our chances there as well, but you've got to play mistake-free basketball and we did not do that. So, figuring out a way to get a win on the road at Tulane was very important."
Leading the way against the Green Wave was senior guard Shizz Alston Jr. He finished with 29 points in the victory, doing much of his damage from the foul line where he hit 14 of 15 free throws. "Anytime we can get him to the line is an advantage for us," Dunphy said. "He's got a great percentage from there (91.1%). He did a very, very good job."
UConn comes into Wednesday night's game at 13-9 on the season (4-5 AAC). The Huskies have won three of their last four including a 76-52 home victory over East Carolina Sunday.
"They play very hard," Dunphy said of the Huskies. "They're very aggressive defensively. It's a good basketball team. (head coach Dan Hurley) does a great job with their group. This is a team that beat Syracuse and they have taken other teams right to the wire. We know what we've got in front of us. It's going to be a well-coached, hard-playing team and they've got really good guard play."
This will be the first of two meetings between the Owls and the Huskies this season. The second will be March 7 in Storrs, Connecticut.
Wednesday night's game at the Liacouras Center gets underway at 6:00 p.m.
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