Preview: UConn Men's Basketball vs. Tulsa | 8 p.m.

STORRS – The UConn Huskies have had their share of problems this season, but being afraid of the dark isn’t one of them.

The Huskies (17-7, 7-4 American Athletic Conference) overcame a power outage during practice last week in Memphis and went on to beat the Tigers that night.

UConn suffered an offensive power outage in the final six minutes of Thursday’s loss at Temple and now hopes to bounce back, after short rest, against Tulsa on Saturday night at Gampel Pavilion (8 p.m., ESPN2).

“This is what the character of a champion is all about,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said following the 63-58 loss to Temple. “We do our best work in the dark and it’s definitely a dark time right now, but we are going to go back to work like we always done. Whoever is going to be with us, is going to be with us. Whoever is going to crucify us, is going to crucify us.

“We’ve been down this road before and we’re going to be ready. … We can’t panic and say the season’s over.”

The Golden Hurricanes (16-8, 8-4) won the first meeting of the season, 60-51, last month in Oklahoma. Tulsa comes in winners of three of its last four, including an 82-77 upset of No. 16 SMU on Wednesday in Dallas.

“We have a quick turnaround and we just have to show some toughness,” said junior Rodney Purvis, who scored 12 points against Temple, but also had a key turnover in the final 20 seconds with UConn down only three points.

“We are going to come back Saturday ready to fight.”

The Huskies already stumbled once against the Owls during this critical four-game stretch that includes Tulsa and SMU at home before going to Cincinnati on Feb. 20. UConn currently sits fifth in the conference standings, a half-game ahead of Houston but only one-and-a-half games behind first place SMU and Houston.

“Everyone just has to stick together and be ready for Saturday,” UConn senior Shonn Miller said. Tulsa, which has won eight of 10, is led by the senior backcourt of James Woodard (16.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and Shaquille Harrison (15.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg).

NOTES: UConn will honor Caron Butler in the Huskies of Honor during Saturday’s game. Butler is the 24th player to receive the honor. … The Huskies are just 2-5 in games decided by five points or less this season.