Junior guard Rodney Purvis scored 20 points and UConn withstood a furious charge to win its American Athletic Conference opener on Saturday night, beating Tulane 75-67 at Devlin Fieldhouse in New Orleans.

Sophomore guard Daniel Hamilton had 19 points and nine rebounds for UConn (10-3, 1-0 American), which nearly blew a 19-point lead. Senior guard Sterling Gibbs had 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Senior forward Shonn Miller added 12 points.

Senior guard Louis Dabney scored 14 points to lead Tulane (7-8, 0-2). Senior forward Jernard Jarreau scored 13 points, sophomore forward Dylan Osetkowski had 11 and senior guard Malik Morgan added 10.

Tulane mounted a 10-0 run to take a 16-12 lead on a dunk by freshman forward Blake Paul. The Huskies outscored the Green Wave 7-1 in the final 1:26 of the first half to take a 38-28 lead into the break.

UConn outscored Tulane 13-4 to start the second half and opened a 51-32 lead on a 3-pointer by Miller, but the Green Wave staged a 17-0 run to cut the deficit to two.

Tulane took a 60-59 lead on two free throws by Dabney with 4:08 to go, but two clutch 3-pointers by Gibbs helped the Huskies prevail.