TEMPE – Finally.

After fumbling away last-second possessions with games in the balance during an embattled start to the conference season, Arizona State finally converted a game-winning play at the death Thursday night, knocking off USC 80-78 to improve to 18-6 and claim an even record in the Pac-12 (6-6) for the first time this year.

Trailing by as many as nine points in the second half, ASU used four straight defensive stops to level the score at 78-78 for its final possession. With the shot clock turned off and the Sun Devils still owning a timeout, senior guard Tra Holder took his time bringing the ball up the floor.

Coach Bobby Hurley kept the timeout in his pocket, not thinking twice about standing idle as Holder drove around a Romello White screen at the top of the arc and adjusted his game-deciding shot once in the paint, lofting a delicate floater over Trojan forward Chimezie Metu that kissed the glass and dropped through the hoop with 1.8 seconds left.

“When I got in the lane, I saw Metu waiting for me,” Holder said postgame, “so I had to shoot a fadeaway shot.”

No problem.

“I knew as soon as I released it, it was going in,” he said.

An anxious 12,377 observers that had been hushed with 2:28 remaining and USC (17-8, 8-4 Pac-12) holding a crippling 78-71 lead, erupted as Holder smacked his chest in celebration. In unison, the buzzing crowd let out an amplified sigh of relief that echoed through the Sun Devils transforming program and drowned out the doubts of another weekday league loss.

“It was inspiring,” Hurley said of the deafening reaction before sarcastically quipping: “It was never in doubt, I’m sure, all the fans felt throughout the game.”

In similar situations against Utah and Washington recently, Hurley’s orchestrated plays from an inbounds were torn apart by well-positioned zone defenses, costing the Sun Devils two losses that have helped bring them to the cusp of the NCAA tournament bubble. On Thursday, he correctly guessed his veteran players’ instincts would be enough.

“It’s really difficult to script a play that is going to be shot just when it needed to be taken,” Hurley explained. “Tra, as a senior, just did everything that you could ask for. To take the time that he needed, wind the clock down and get in there almost as time was expiring.”

Holder’s last-gasp, go-ahead bucket was the culmination of a dramatic second-half rally from the Sun Devils, who scored the game’s final nine points as part of a closing 14-3 run.

“You have to become more perfect in that situation with a deficit,” Hurley said. “When you have the heart and the will to win that, especially, our seniors have, they lead the way.”

During the possession before Holder’s game-winner, fellow senior guard Shannon Evans II knotted the score with a 3-pointer that was equal parts challenging and important, pulling up from well beyond the arc and over Trojan defenders to bury his fifth triple of the night – all in the second half.

“Cash” was how he described it.

“The ball was going in for me in the second half,” Evans said. “I had some room, you know what I’m saying? Cash.”

As Evans released his game-tying bomb, the tortured Wells Fargo Arena crowd let out a nervous groan. They had seen shots like it rattle out during the Sun Devils 5-6 start to conference play. Not so against the Trojans.

“After it went in they were happy, huh?” Evans laughed after finishing the game 21 points, only outdone on the stat sheet by Holder’s 22 points.

But as the Sun Devils ignited offensively in the final minutes, their defense – finally – fueled the comeback with a string of stops. After the Trojans methodically worked the shot clock and the ball to manufacture a Shaqquan Aaron layup with 2:28 left, USC didn’t score again.

The Trojan’s final four possessions before Holder’s bucket: Remy Martin steal, Bennie Boatwright turnover, Boatwright missed 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock, Metu missed layup through traffic.

After playing most of the second unorganized and allowing USC to get open shots and easy offensive rebounds, the Sun Devils backend sparked perhaps their most important conference win to date.

“That’s the beauty of this,” Hurley said. “We won a game like this (even though) we were far from our best.”

“We went to our zone pressure and made them work a little bit in the backcourt,” he added. “…I’m going to have to look at that film again to see how that went down because it’s really a blur.”

Evans offered a different answer for the defensive turnaround: “Our crowd created energy, so we wanted to play defense harder.”

It was Evans who after ASU’s win at Washington State last Sunday excitedly proclaimed, “We are going back to the Bank,” when asked how crucial the Sun Devils’ three-game homestand against USC, UCLA and No. 9 Arizona would be.

Though dotted with more empty seats than usual (not helped by a late 9 p.m. local tip), ASU’s crowd again factored into what could be the Sun Devils conference-season turning point, the night where they rediscovered their winning non-conference form.

“When you exert that type of energy and effort to come back, you need any edge you can get,” Hurley said of Thursday night’s atmosphere.

Now, the Sun Devils have presented themselves with a potential milestone by – finally – winning the front-end of a Pac-12 weekend: the chance for a two-game sweep against conference foes, a feat Hurley has yet to accomplish at ASU.

Evans acknowledged his team’s need to finish the year strong to clinch a first NCAA tournament berth since 2014, saying: “People are saying we are a bubble team now, so every game right now is crucial.”

Weekend splits might not be enough.

“We got a quick turnaround, on Saturday UCLA is coming in here,” Evans added. “It’s cool to win this one, but our mindset was win two. We got to do that.”

Holder’s majestic driving floater provided the fantastical finish ASU needed to get to .500 in league play for the first time this year; a dream-come-true the Sun Devils won’t be dwelling on come UCLA’s visit on Saturday night.

“I’ve really put it behind me already,” Hurley said not even two minutes into his postgame presser. “I don’t want to talk much more about this game.”

Said Evans bluntly, fully aware of the work still to be done: “In reality, we know we got to win two.”