TUCSON, Ariz. - Just like me, Arizona had this story written. They would overcome their feisty rivals in a seesaw battle and feed off their home crowd to their 25th win of the season and their sixth consecutive win over their in-state counterparts. Right when they were ready to put it through the printing press on Sunday’s Arizona Republic headline, Desmond Cambridge crumpled up the paper and threw it away, just like his half-court buzzer-beater that fell perfectly through the net to stun the Wildcats and give Arizona State (20-9, 11-7 Pac-12) an unbelievable 89-88 victory.

In a back-and-forth contest that saw 18 lead changes and 11 ties, the Sun Devils and Wildcats (24-5, 13-5) threw haymakers at each other for all 40 minutes, with neither going down to the canvas. What was a physical and fast game from the jump bogged down late in the second half when both teams found their star players in foul trouble. After both Devan Cambridge and Warren Washington fouled out, Arizona was left to go to work on the boards, which they did following what looked like a game-sealing miss from DJ Horne with just seconds to play.

Arizona's Oumar Ballo would go to the free-throw line and make his second of two shots. Even though a three could still win it, staffers at McKale Center were ready to release the victory confetti, and the Arizona band was queuing up its fight song. Before they could blast their respective winning celebrations, Desmond Cambridge dropped their jaws and stole victory from the jaws of defeat with a half-court heave as the buzzer sounded to send shockwaves through the college basketball world.

“Euphoria,” Bobby Hurley said of Cambridge’s miracle shot. “The look I got, I thought it had a chance, going right toward the hoop. Looked good when it left his hand. Cambridge is amazing.”

As for Cambridge, he wasn’t as confident as his coach was, which only made that result that much sweeter.

“If I’m being completely honest, I make those shots all the time,” Desmond Cambridge said. “That shot, I did not think it was going in. I really just wanted it to be a nice miss and have everyone go “ooh”. When it went in, I literally could only scream.”

Cambridge and the Sun Devil’s victory roar might as well have been deafening in a McKale Center that went absolutely silent for the first time all day. How could they have been quiet when these fierce rivals went to war with each other for all 40 minutes?

From tipoff, there was a different intensity to this ASU team. In shootaround, they weren’t their usual, jovial kind of group. It was a focused silence. Every man in a gold jersey was locked into the task at hand, with their own internal confidence that was not shared by anyone anticipating this game.

“We had good preparation coming into this,” Hurley said of the biggest victory of the year to date. “We were poised to play well based on how we were practicing.”

“We thought we was gonna win,” Desmond Cambridge added. “I don’t think anyone else did.”

Those doubters got a little taste of what would come out of the gate as the Sun Devils burst out of the locker room to make their first five attempts from the field. This start, one most Sun Devil fans hadn’t seen much of this year, was almost necessary to keep up with the Wildcats, whose 83.2 points per game and 72.8 KenPom adjusted tempo rating both rank top ten in the nation.

While ASU’s 22 points in ten minutes were just one more jaw-dropping stat produced, Arizona’s 21 points scored proved to be underwhelming. Instead of weathering the early storm that Tommy Lloyd’s teams have won so many games off of, Hurley knew his team had to go straight into its eye if it wanted any chance to win their first game in Tucson since 2019.

“They’ve been a very impressive first-half team,” Hurley noted. “In terms of scoring, they have a big differential; they go at teams right away. We didn’t want a replay of that first matchup where we had to fight back from that deficit.”

In their first matchup this season back on New Year’s Eve, Arizona hung its hat on a 45-point first half to survive ASU’s furious comeback attempt in the back 20. On Saturday, Arizona was still able to score at will, but the Sun Devils matched them at every turn with some of their best shot-making examples of the year. Off 10 points from Jamiya Neal and another nine from DJ Horne, ASU was able to make 20 field goals, its most in a half this season, to survive a shootout that was supposed to favor the hosts and take a slim but impressive 46-45 advantage into the half.

Arizona came back out of the locker room with a purpose and quickly jumped on ASU with consecutive threes to take a five-point lead early in the second stanza. The Wildcats’ offense would continue its relentlessness, too, simply outgunning the Sun Devils’ sensational offensive performance with what the Zona Zoo crowd expects: points in bunches. Over the first 13 minutes of the half, Arizona State’s 22 points were overshadowed by Arizona’s 33, plenty of which came off of the team’s 34 total free throws on the day.

While they had their opportunities from the charity stripe, Arizona’s staggering 34 free throw attempts might have been a blessing in disguise for ASU, even though the visitors had ten attempts. Holding a 78-68 lead with 6:30 to play, Arizona was already in the bonus, and every foul would send them to the line and, more importantly, stop the game clock.

“We did get down ten and held onto the rope, but guys kept making plays,” Hurley said.

Arizona’s pitched tent at the free-throw line, though, would come at the cost of their patented run-and-gun game, slowing the pace down to the liking of Hurley and ASU.

In a game where the difference was by more than two possessions for less than three total minutes, ASU was right in their comfort zone. With multiple comebacks and quadrant one wins already in tow against Creighton and VCU (and perhaps Michigan, too), the Sun Devils weren’t in unfamiliar territory.

“Staying resilient, staying poised, being able to stand up when they knock you down,” Desmond Cambridge said. “We grew so much here.”

“Been in a lot of games like this,” Hurley talked about. “We’ve beaten really good teams in close games.”

The Sun Devils channeled that confidence to fight back and trim Arizona’s 10-point lead all the way down to one, following the first clutch three-pointer by Desmond Cambridge, part of his 19 points, following a heads-up defensive steal by younger brother Devan. Following missed free throws by Arizona’s Pelle Larsson, whose 16 points tied for the second most in a single game for his season, DJ Horne stepped up and sunk a go-ahead three. Horne’s final three points of the night added to a total of 18 on the night, a far cry from the player who got a team-induced suspension for detrimental conduct at the beginning of the month.

The Sun Devils’ 86-85 lead would be short-lived, as Larsson came down the other end ferociously and laid one in off the glass to retake the lead for UA with 29 seconds to play. Out of a timeout, DJ Horne found himself with space for a mid-range jumper with less than five seconds left. When he didn’t get the rim roll, and Oumar Ballo pounced on the rebound and made a free throw on the other end; the wind looked like it came out of the sails for the visiting ship.

“I thought it was good,” Horne said of the shot. “But I saw there was still some time on the clock. I knew we still had a chance at a half-court heave.”

“I thought it was over,” Desmond Cambridge said. “Just keep playing until the buzzer sounds.”

Luckily for Horne and the Sun Devils, Desmond Cambridge would take that half-court heave and hit nothing but net. Stunned disbelief came over the faces of all in the sold-out sea of red, and pure elation from the few patches of maroon and gold in McKale Center.

“That’s the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of. When I go and replay that moment, that’s probably going to be the best moment in my life,” Cambridge said. “I can’t wait to hear nothing.”

“By far the best win of my career, for sure,” added DJ Horne. “To be able to see their fans file out of here in defeat, there’s no better feeling than that.”

“That’s a heck of a game,” Hurley said, covered in sweat. “That’s an epic game. The quality of the game was very high level. Lot of credit to them, one of the top teams in the country. To come out here and do what we did today is pretty special.”

While the win in itself, a mark that gives ASU 20 victories for the fourth time in the last six years, would be enough to put a smile on the face of every Sun Devil, its implications for possible postseason play are cause for even more joy. Firmly seen as on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament, Saturday’s outcome places them right back into the conversation, and Hurley thinks his team’s performance is becoming of a team that deserves a chance to hear their names called on Selection Sunday.

“I hope people were watching to see the level of the game,” Hurley said emphatically. “That’s what the postseason asks for. They want teams who perform like that. I think you saw two teams that should be in the postseason.”

Not only did this win have major ramifications for the rest of this season, but also raising ASU’s chances of finishing in the top four in the Pac-12 standings and earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament; but it’s also a historic triumph in the rivalry. Arizona was held to just one field goal in the final seven minutes of a game this season, the first time that’s happened. Hurley and the Sun Devils prevailed over a top-10 team in the country on the road for the first time since 2017 at Kansas. Hurley's victory was his 11th over a ranked program in his Tempe tenure. Entering Tucson 0-29 when unranked at Arizona, ASU got their first such win on Saturday.

Yet, with all the accolades that came Arziona State’s way, Saturday’s ballgame was the first of a three-game gauntlet where the Sun Devils will have to take on UCLA and USC on the road. But for now, the two-hour bus ride back to Tempe will be a joyous one if Hurley’s goodbye wave to Arizona fans was any indication.

“Some people jumping ship on us and not thinking that we’re that team, but we are that team, and the guys came out and proved it,” Hurley said.“ The road doesn't get any easier the rest of the way, but you're gonna be playing in the postseason; you gotta beat teams like this. We’re excited the rest of the way.”

“You can’t even put into words how much that means to everyone in the locker room,” Desmond Cambridge said of the win“ “Another big game that we needed, and we pulled through.”

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