BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The homily during Father Frank McNulty's Sunday morning team mass dealt with courage.

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"A college prof writes on the board, 'What is courage?'" McNulty, the Seton Hall team chaplain, told the Pirates. "A kid writes, 'This is,' and hands the paper in. The prof calls him that night and says, 'You didn't define it, you demonstrated it.'"

"I told the team, 'I've seen you guys demonstrate courage all year. The important thing is to bring it with you out into life because things can get pretty hard.'"

After Sunday morning Mass and Sunday afternoon mass hysteria, who needed life lessons? Basketball has taught Seton Hall all it needs to know for now. Two overtimes have produced two Seton Hall victories and a berth in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1992.

The latest was an improbable, 67-65 overtime victory over second-seeded Temple (27-6). The Pirates did it mostly without leading scorer Shaheen Holloway. There were more than a few prayers uttered when Holloway went down with a severely sprained left ankle sprain 7:55 into the game.

Divine providence was renamed Ty Shine. The Pirates' backup point guard entered to play the rest of the game and hit the winning three-pointer with 18.9 seconds left. Shine, a sophomore, scored a career-high 26 points that included a career-high seven 3-pointers in 37 minutes. Talk about your profiles in courage.

"Ty was there at Mass, and he mentioned it to me when I went in to congratulate him," McNulty said. "It made me feel good. This team suffered a lot. We had a few bad losses at the end, we were a bubble team, happy to get in and then we were underdogs."

They can separate church and state but they can't separate the church from a feel-good tournament story. Shine actually started at the end of last season when Holloway was in the doghouse adjusting to coach Tommy Amaker's system. But this season Shine, a sophomore, was strictly a reserve, averaging 7.2 points.

"Earlier in the year, I was going through a whole lot where I let not playing a lot affect my whole game," said Shine, a 28.8 percent 3-point shooter coming into the game. "There was no doubt in my mind I could shoot."

It took a devastating injury to prove it Sunday and perhaps beyond. Seton Hall meets Oklahoma State in one East Region semifinal Friday in Syracuse, N.Y. The Pirates will no doubt be underdogs again. They became the first team to win consecutive overtime tournament games since Louisville in 1980. The Cardinals went on to win the national title.

Holloway will be reevaluated this week, but Amaker said he expects his wheelchair-bound guard to recover in time to play Friday against Oklahoma State.

"When I went down, I was afraid this was going to be my last college game," Holloway said in a postgame statement. "I didn't want it to end like this. I don't know what's going to happen now, but it's great we advanced."

Holloway's status as the spiritual leader was further solidified Friday when he hit the game-winning shot against Oregon. When he went down Sunday after stepping on Quincy Wadley's foot, there wasn't total depression. This is not the first time Holloway has gone down writhing in pain only to come back minutes later.

"He's had times where they literally carried him off the court because he strained this or that or had a back problem," said team orthopedist Greg Gallick. "He comes back five minutes later because he's got great motivation. This was a bad one. He could barely do anything."

Gallick knew it was serious. By the time he reached Holloway the left ankle was already swollen. Strangely, at the same time Gallick was accompanying Holloway to the hospital, Seton Hall was making its run.

It came back from a 14-3 deficit to lead at halftime 31-29. Shine heated up right away, scoring 12 points in 12 first-half minutes, including four 3-pointers. Nine of the team's 11 baskets were 3s and were part of a school-record 15 3s overall.

The Pirates (22-9) led 57-54 with 37 seconds left in regulation. That's when Temple guard Pepe Sanchez fouled out trying to stop Seton Hall's Darius Lane.

But Temple's Mark Karcher hit a three to tie it with 24.7 seconds left in regulation. What started as a great Holloway-Sanchez matchup was devoid of the star attractions for the final 5½ minutes of the game.

"There's always one team you dread," Temple coach John Chaney said. "In all my years, we've always had one."

Chaney wasn't alone in feeling the sting of an upset. Bracketville, it seems, has burned to the ground. For the first time since the tournament expanded in 1985 to 64 teams, five of the top eight teams (one and two seeds) have been eliminated in the first two rounds.

An injured Shaheen Holloway watches Seton Hall's victory from a wheelchair.(AP)

The Pirates were in better shape to deal with adversity on the court than the Sheehan Memorial hospital staff. There was no radiologist around, so Gallick read Holloway's X-rays himself. They were negative. A physician did a cursory examination with a stethoscope. His heart was beating, so Holloway was ready to head back to HSBC Arena without Sheehan asking for so much as an insurance card.

Then with Seton Hall's season hanging on every shot, the head nurse asked for an autograph.

"She didn't know who this kid is but she said, 'Can I have an autograph. My son loves basketball,'" Gallick said. "He was a little upset."

In the space of 30 minutes, Holloway was treated, stuck in a wheelchair and rolled back out to the end of the Seton Hall bench.

Shine then created his own game-winning shot, dribbling to the top of the arc and draining a 21-footer.

"It was my form and the rim," Shine said. "As a matter of fact, I can't remember it going through. Overtime, we love this type of game."

It was still not over for the Owls, who were sentimental favorites to reach the Final Four under Chaney. Temple's Lynn Greer was driving for a game-tying basket but pulled up behind teammate Lamont Barnes with 4.8 seconds left.

"When overtime started, I heard, 'Rimas, Rimas,' guard Rimas Kaukenas said. "I turned around and Shaheen was saying, 'One stop, just one stop.' I got everybody's attention and said, 'We need to do this for Shaheen.'

"For us to come out of this with a win, it is very exciting. Probably the most exciting thing to happen in my life."

At the end, two Seton Hall celebrations broke out -- one on the court and one around Holloway's wheelchair. Like someone healed through a miracle, Holloway somehow lifted himself out of his rolling prison to hug them all back.

"There was," McNulty said, "a lot of crying."

The trail of tears now extends all the way to Syracuse.