Temple and Villanova went down to the wire in a wild finish. Tied at 64 with under a minute left, Villanova looked poised to win as the higher seed, but a missed shot gave Temple the last meaningful possession. With the crowd on edge, Temple milked the clock and drew a foul in the closing seconds. The free throws dropped, putting Temple ahead by two with just over a second left. Fans started spilling onto the court early, thinking it was over, but a foul was called before time expired. Villanova’s coach argued it should be a technical with the court storm happening during live play, but the refs said the foul was called first.
After some confusion and debate, Temple hit more free throws to go up by five. Nova called a timeout to set up a desperation play with 0.2 seconds left, but it didn’t matter. The moment the buzzer went off, the fans rushed the court again. Cheerleaders scrambled, band members went along with the chaos, and one kid jumped up to grab the net like it was his destiny. Temple pulled off the upset and the fan base erupted. The coach was still frustrated, but the scoreboard was final. Temple wins.