Hartford, CT (SportsNetwork.com) - Jesse Morgan scored a game-high 17 points as the Temple Owls held off the Connecticut Huskies in overtime, 57-53, in the American Athletic Conference opener for both programs at the XL Center.

The Owls (10-4, 1-0 AAC), winners of four in a row and six of the last seven, also picked up 11 points from Quenton Decosey who made good on 9-of-14 at the free-throw line while missing all but one of his nine field goal chances on the day.

UConn (6-5, 0-1) was led by Amida Brimah with 12 points and Daniel Hamilton 10 and 12 rebounds, but the latter had a chance to potentially win the game at the end of overtime and failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Kentan Facey came up a point shy of a double-double for the Huskies, as they had their two-game win streak snapped, while notching 11 rebounds.

Both sides had trouble finding the basket in the first half as the Owls knocked down a total of just eight field goals and UConn made 38.5 percent from the floor. However, while the Huskies came up empty on the perimeter (0- of-3), Temple converted 4-of-12 on the outside in order to claim a 25-21 lead at the break.

Temple led for much of the second half and was up by four with less than a minute remaining in regulation before Hamilton knocked down a pair of free throws and Rodney Purvis knotted the score at 51-51 on a dunk with just over 10 seconds left, sending the meeting into overtime.

The Huskies had only two points in the overtime frame, yet still had a chance to win in the final seconds after Hamilton was fouled on a 3-point try. He missed the first two and then purposely missed the third, but he ended up collecting a shot that failed to hit the rim, turning the ball back to the Owls.

Will Cummings, who made only 2-of-10 shots from the floor on the day, promptly knocked down a pair of free throws for the visitors, securing the four-point win.

UConn, which turned the ball over 16 times, was a woeful 8-of-19 at the charity stripe.