ORLANDO — Daniel Hamilton had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds as the UConn Huskies clinched a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship with a 77-62 win over the top-seeded Temple Owls.

Despite coming off a four overtime game less than 24 hours earlier, UConn used a 28-7 run in the middle of the first half to jump out to a 39-28 halftime lead.

The Huskies were oozing confidence following the four over time thriller on Friday and they carried the momentum from that game into Saturday’s semifinal.

“After a win like that, with the shot that Jalen (Adams) made, it’s really like a confidence booster.” said Hamilton of carrying the momentum from Friday over to the semifinal. “We wanted to come out here and build off that game and then come out with more intensity.”

Temple played better in the second half as they improved their shooting percentage from 28.1 percent in the first half to 43.8 during the final 20 minutes.

The Owls were the top-seeded team in the tournament with a 20-10 regular season record which should keep Temple safe for an at-large NCAA tournament bid.

UConn will now play in the conference tournament championship for the third year in a row, this time against the winner of Memphis/Tulane.

“We still got one more game left,” said UConn head coach Kevin Ollie following the game. “We have been in the championship i the last three years here, and hopefully third time is the charm like everybody says.”

The American Athletic Conference tournament championship will tip-off at 3:15 on Sunday with the game being televised on ESPN.