'How did they do that?' Temple tops UConn again

Temple's Quenton DeCosey flexed under the basket, and it was entirely appropriate. How did DeCosey's shot even get to that basket? His drive had hit a wall, a Connecticut defender, Rodney Purvis, dropping his arm across DeCosey's arm.

The defender's mistake? Not keeping DeCosey's arm wrapped up. Purvis let up for a second, reasonably, the foul already called. DeCosey then powered the shot kind of through the outstretched arms of UConn's highest-jumping inside player.

"I don't know how that went in," DeCosey said later.

A game that seemed lost was suddenly tied until DeCosey walked to the foul line at the Liacouras Center and un-tied it, completing a three-point play he'll remember for a while. On a cold night on North Broad, how did Temple score 21 of the last 25 points Thursday for a craziest-yet 63-58 victory?

With Temple, it's rarely pretty. Make that, never pretty. But the Owls put their sweat all over each game and opponents have to realize they better match the sweat and throw in some poise or they're probably in for some trouble.

Nothing entirely makes sense about this Temple season. There was a time in December when you thought the Owls might have a shot at the NIT. Now? Temple has taken out the top ranks of the American Athletic Conference, sweeping home-and-homes with both Connecticut and Cincinnati, adding another over SMU.

The Owls now are 15-8 and 9-3 in the AAC, and have a fascinating NCAA resumé, the bubble looming closer, huge games ahead, including against Villanova next Wednesday here, before a now-crucial road trip to Houston and Tulsa.

"Right now, we're focusing on Feb. 14," said another star of the night, Daniel Dingle, correctly nailing the date of the next game, Sunday at home against South Florida. "It's my birthday the next day," he explained of how he had kept track of the calender.

I was in the building when the Owls came back to beat Tulsa in overtime in their previous home game, still not sure how it happened, except DeCosey threw a perfect pass at the perfect time and Devin Coleman dropped a big-time shot that night.

This time, Dingle hit two three-pointers in 41 seconds, three in just over two minutes, shifting the momentum so entirely the building barely seemed ready for it.

Kevin Ollie's Huskies - now 17-7 and 7-4 in the ACC, their NCAA work not done - were sweating plenty hard, but they simply lost their poise. A sudden Temple full-court press out of a timeout resulted in a two-on-one UConn break, except UConn's big man dropped the ball.

Ollie counted six turnovers in the last six minutes. His math was pretty close to right - six in the last 61/2 minutes, three in the final 23 seconds.

After Temple scored nine points in the last 79 seconds of the first half to go into the break two points up, Owls coach Fran Dunphy saw that same group score nine points in the first 13-plus minutes of the second half. Later, he grimaced as Dingle threw a pass that shouldn't have been thrown, for a turnover that led to a 54-42 Huskies lead.

It was over, right?

Then Dingle hit those three straight threes.

"That's the unlikely part," Dunphy said. "The great part, too. . . . He shot those last three like, no problem, they're going down."

Same for DeCosey. After a 14-point first half, the second was mostly a wall for Temple's top player until he decided to get through the wall.

"He's a veteran player, and he has no fear," Dunphy said of DeCosey. "He thinks he's supposed to do all those things and do them well."

Of the whole comeback thing, Dunphy said, "It's not how you want to live your life, living on the edge."

Don't take that as a complaint. Dunphy said he hopes that's part of their DNA, "that we're not a giving-up kind of group."

The guy who allowed himself a momentary flex put it this way: "I think we just pride ourself on being the tougher team."

About that, nobody in the other locker room could debate.

"It just came down to toughness," Ollie said after this one.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus