A system and method are provided for discriminating supra-ventricular tachycardia (SVT) from ventricular tachycardia (VT). A monitoring EGM signal is acquired during a sensing window timed according to the time of R-wave detection on a reference EGM signal. A normal sinus rhythm (NSR) template is generated using the monitoring EGM signal during the time-referenced sensing window. During an unknown rhythm, the monitoring EGM signal sensed during the time-referenced sensing window is compared to the NSR template for use in computing a morphology metric. The morphology metric is compared to a VT/VF detection threshold for discriminating SVT from VT/VF.