Temple @ Connecticut preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 7, 2019 ) Temple 78, Connecticut 71

Two teams hungry for a victory collide Wednesday at Connecticut, where the Huskies host Temple in American Athletic Conference action. UConn and Temple each have lost six of their last seven games and only South Florida trails the schools in the AAC standings.

UConn has lost its last four games, although the margins of defeat - three, six, four and four - have been encouraging in some ways, especially because three of the losses came against ranked opponents. "Great effort, toughness, grit," UConn coach Dan Hurley said after a tight overtime loss to Tulsa the last time out. "Can't make up for not having the ability just to have a guy or two that down the stretch of a game can just take hold of it." Temple's most recent loss came against local rival Pennsylvania, as the Ivy League foe nipped the Owls 66-59 on Saturday. "I wish we were undefeated at this point in the season, but we’re not," said Temple coach Aaron McKie, "so we have to make some adjustments and we have to start doing things maybe a little bit different to get ourselves out of this tailspin.”

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: ESPNews

ABOUT TEMPLE (10-9, 2-5 AAC): Quinton Rose had a team-high 21 points against Penn but needed to take a lot of shots to get there, shooting 10-of-25 and missing all three of his 3-pointers as part of the team's 1-of-13 effort from beyond the arc. Nate Pierre-Louis, coming off a highly productive game, was 2-of-12 from the field, while Alani Moore II struggled with his shooting for the fourth time in five games (1-of-6 for four points). "It’s starting to become routine when you look at the stat sheet," McKie said, "and Q is 10-for-25, (J.P. Moorman II) is 2-for-8, Alani’s 1-for-6, and Nate’s 2-for-12, and you can go down the list. That’s where our trouble starts for us."

ABOUT CONNECTICUT (10-9, 1-5): Christian Vital (14.0 points) is the only double-digit scorer on the season for the Huskies, who do have six other players averaging between 6.6 and 9.8 points. Vital is just 6-of-26 from the field in the last two games and over his last seven games, he is 7-of-37 from 3-point land. James Bouknight had a team-high 16 points - the third time this season he has scored more than 15 points -- although all three have come in overtime.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. The Owls won both meetings last season, tying the all-time series at 10-10.

2. Temple F Jake Forrester is coming off his first career double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds).

3. UConn F Akok Akok leads the AAC in blocks per game (3.0).

PREDICTION: Connecticut 70, Temple 60