Temple was well on its way to utterly outclassing Purdue in last night's NCAA East Regional at the Meadowlands when the chants began bellowing out from the stands like smoke from a bonfire.
Masochistic cries of "We want Duke, we want Duke, we want Duke" engulfed the arena from the mouths of the confident, crimson-clad Temple fans.
And why not? Temple crushed Purdue as if the Big Ten school was some overmatched, last-minute substitute out of Division II, winning 77-55 to advance to the tournament's prestigious Elite Eight.
"We want Duke, we want Duke, we want Duke," the fans repeated.
Well, Temple gets 35-1 Duke in tomorrow's 2:40 p.m. East Regional final at the Meadowlands.
He's coached Temple for 17 years, won 380 games, led the Owls to the NCAA Tournament 15 times and gotten to the regional final four times now, including this year.
And he stares at awesome Duke as the hurdle to make it to the Final Four for the first time in his career.
As crisp, disciplined and potent as Chaney's Owls looked last night, they'll be hard-pressed to defeat Duke, which quietly and efficiently killed the marvelous Southwest Missouri State season with an execution-style beating of Steve Alford's team, 78-61, last night at the Meadowlands.
Last night's Temple win – its 24th in 34 games this season – was defined by a rare and bizarre Owls' possession that ended in 10 consecutive points in the first half.
The TV replay clearly showed Temple's Quincy Wadley making the first shove under the basket after teammate Kevin Lyde (14 points) had scored. Unfortunately for Purdue, McAllister only saw Cornell making a retaliation and called him on it, enraging the Purdue bench and sparking what turned out to be the defining moments of the game.
The sequence began with Purdue leading Temple 11-7.
Lyde, the 6-foot-9, 240-pound freshman who was unstoppable for undersized Purdue, scored a bucket in the paint to cut it to 11-9 and was fouled by Greg McQuay with 13:21 remaining in the first half. The shoving occurred after basket and before Lyde was to go to the line.
Lyde banked the free throw to complete the three-point play and cut it to 11-10.
Temple point guard Pepe Sanchez (17 points) was then called on to take the two technical foul free throws, which he drained.
Temple, because of the technical, then held possession of the ball and Purdue's Alan Eldridge was called for fouling Rasheed Brokenborough in the act of shooting, sending Brokenborough to the line. After Brokenborough made the first, three times Keady screamed, "The was a chicken[bleep] call," to the refs.
On the third "chicken[bleep]," referee Rusty Herring nailed Keady with a technical.
Brokenborough missed his next free throw, but Sanchez came on to sink the two technical-foul free throws to give Temple a 15-11 lead, and the Owls still had possession of the ball.
So in 19 seconds, with the Owls scoring eight points in that time, the complexion of the game was indelibly altered.
Temple piled on with its ensuing possession from the second technical when Mark Karcher hit a jump shot with 12:38 remaining in the half to give the Owls a 17-11 lead.
So, in a span of less than a minute, Temple went from being down 11-7 to being up 17-11 without giving up the ball.