The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Adams hits winner as Huskies top Temple
Sophomore hits game-winner as Huskies edge Temple
PHILADELPHIA >> It was just over a year ago at the Liacouras Center that Jalen Adams went through the low point of what was a very up-and-down freshman season.
Adams got into a shouting match with coach Kevin Ollie at halftime, barely played at all in the latter half, and UConn wound up squandering a late 12-point lead and lost.
Safe to say, he erased some of those bad memories on Sunday afternoon.
Adams, who had suffered through a relatively poor shooting effort most of the game, scored on a driving layup with 2.9 seconds to play, giving UConn one of its few leads of the game and (after Shizz Alston’s desperation 3-point attempt was off the mark) a 64-63 win over Temple.
“It was great to get a win in here,” said Adams. “I still didn’t play my best game, but it was a great team in the second half. It’s always good to build on that.”
The Huskies (14-12, 9-5 AAC) led for exactly one minute and one second on Sunday. They had an early 4-2 lead, and a brief 24-23 lead for exactly 20 seconds late in the opening half. But Temple (14-14, 5-10) led almost the entire rest of the game, including by 10 (56-46) after an Alston 3-pointer with 8:29 to play.
UConn gradually clawed its way back and tied the game at 60 with 2:58 remaining on a Rodney Purvis 3-pointer with just two seconds left on the shot clock. Temple’s Quinton Rose quickly countered with a trey, however. Adams hit a pair of free throws with 1:05 left, and Daniel Dingle missed the front end of a one-and-one with 41 seconds remaining to keep it a
one-point Temple lead.
The Owls gave a couple of fouls, and with 8.4 seconds left, Purvis inbounded the ball from the side to Adams near midcourt. That was who Ollie wanted to take the last shot.
“That’s our best player,” the coach noted. “I wanted to slip Amida (Brimah) and get him off the pick-androll because I knew they would double Jay. They still kind of doubled him, but he made a good move, and we’ve seen that a million times. I want him to be a little more aggressive in the beginning and middle part of the game, but I’ll take that finish any day. He went up strong, went under control, and it was a great shot by him.”
Said Adams: “Coach drew up a high ball screen for me and Amida, and for me to come off that and be aggressive and read to see what was open. If they tried to overplay me, just kick out to one of the shooters. But they didn’t, they helped on the wing, and I was able to get a little isolation with the big man and make a move, and was able to get to the basket.”
It was a very different story in this building last Feb. 11, of course. Adams got into a shouting match with Ollie at halftime and remained tethered to the bench for most of the second half until finally checking in in the final minutes. It was too late, as the Huskies squandered a 12-point lead with about 5 1/2 minutes left and lost 63-58.
But Adams has matured quite a bit over the past 53 weeks.
“I just accept coaching,” he said. “That was my problem last year. I wasn’t really up to being coachable. But I think I’ve grown a lot this year and I’m a lot more coachable. Me and Coach Ollie have a great connection. He just gives me the freedom to get out there and lead the guys. I just try to take advantage of that.”
Ollie noted that Adams’ bumps in the road last year (most notably the Temple game) have made him a better player and person.
“Resistance prepares you for greatness,” said the coach. “Last year, resistance was here. He had to learn how to grow up. Sometimes, you’re put in that gym called life, and you’ve got to grow up. I think he grew up here. He’s been growing up in our eyes now, taking over the point guard role. My vision was to have two point guards on the court the majority of the time. But with (Alterique Gilbert) out, he had to take that initiative of being the main point guard. He’s doing a great job.”
Ollie continued: “He’s more open to learn and being an empty cup, which I respect, because a lot of players think they just know it all. You have to fight and break that down. For him, being an open cup and saying ‘I want to learn,’ is a great step for him. And he’s making guys better. We don’t have Ray Allen or Rudy Gay running around here. Nothing against those guys, but he’s making everybody better. And that’s a true test of a great point guard, to make everybody around you better.”
Purvis led UConn with 18 points, hitting seven of his last 11 shots (including four 3-pointers) and adding five assists. Purvis came up with two shots — a 3-pointer with 8:04 left that stemmed a 7-2 Temple run, and the gametying trey with 2:58 left — that were among the biggest of the game.
“And Jalen’s shot,” Ollie noted, with a smile. “That was the biggest one.”