You expected silence in Temple's locker room, everybody in front of a locker, mourning a loss that could have been a win until the final millisecond.
But it wasn't quite like that. With Owls coach Fran Dunphy down the hall holding a news conference, every Owls player watched it all unfold again. How had St. Joseph's walked away from a full Liacouras Center with a 68-67 victory in the latest Big Five classic, one that had Hawks coach Phil Martelli saying he was "still numb" afterward?
"Another commercial, man," Mark Tyndale griped as teammate Dionte Christmas fast-forwarded through the game.
They had already seen the dramatic final plays - Was the last-second play a block or goal-tend? How did Pat Calathes get so open for his game-winner? - and now they rewound the tape a little more, looking for Calathes open again on the baseline. Where was that play? How did it happen?
They found it: We all matched? Where were you going? See?
"We're closer to being a good team than we've ever been, and we have a chance to really make some noise in the Atlantic Ten," Dunphy said later, standing in a hallway. "But we can't ever let down."
For everybody else in the building last night, it will be the final plays that linger. They all went through Tyndale, and when the game ended and the result was still up in the air, the senior motioned vehemently for a goaltending call. An official made another motion, indicating that Tyndale's layup attempt, inches out of his hand when the buzzer sounded, was still going up when St. Joe's center Ahmad Nivins reached over to block it.
The call isn't reviewable, but replays appeared to show the official had it right. The ball might have been at the very top of its arc, but didn't seem to be going down.
"From the first angle, it looked like it was a goal-tend," Tyndale said of the replay. "From another angle, it looked like it was a good block. So I've got to give Nivins some credit. I give credit for a great block, I think."
That's as much of a concession speech as you could expect out of Temple's locker room. The Owls already had watched another crucial play, seconds earlier. Tyndale had left Rob Ferguson, but instead of just Tyndale running back toward him, Christmas had joined him, leaving Calathes open for his three-pointer.
At that point, Tyndale had scored 10 straight Temple points - hitting two straight killer threes and driving to the hoop for another dagger. But if he'd scored 12 straight, the Owls probably seal the win.
