This was the one.

Well, the first one, at least. You’d have to hope so, if you’re an Arizona State fan. It’s the one you’ve been waiting desperately for.

When the Sun Devils watched their six-point lead evaporated into a six-point deficit with seven minutes to go, they could have folded. It would’ve been understandable. In reality, it wouldn’t have been outside the realm of expectation, given recent history.

These just weren’t the kinds of games ASU wins, not even last year. Late-season battles with plenty on the line, let alone against Arizona? Those really haven’t been the Sun Devils’ strong suit of late.

For once, Thursday night was different. The hope, at this point, has to be that Thursday night — which saw Arizona State, for the first time under Hurley, defeat its in-state rival by an overtime final of 95-88 — is the new normal.

“Our fan base is excited, our players are very excited, our students were unbelievable, the crowd was ridiculously great,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “They enjoyed themselves and everyone left happy, so it’s a great night for everyone.”

The Sun Devils (15-6, 6-3 Pac-12) had this chance last year, at a similar point in the season. The Wildcats were an entirely different opponent, sure, but ASU was just as much in that game as it was Thursday.

February 15, 2018, at Wells Fargo Arena, the Sun Devils were down by just a point at the half. Entering the stretch run, they even held advantages of as many as five, even seven points. With two minutes left, though, Arizona turned a two-point lead into a seven-point lead in a matter of 30 seconds and never looked back.

You know how the story goes; the Sun Devils lost, and then lost five of their next six, turning what seemed like it could be a special iteration of ASU basketball into one that barely classified as a blip on the radar of the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s been years,” Cheatham said. “It’s not just last year. It’s been years of them winning, they’ve destroyed us, they’ve won in a couple-point fashion, they’ve just won in all different kinds of ways.”

This 2018-19 team has shown similar flashes of greatness to the one that started 12-0 last season. But there have been similar causes for concern, too.

The two seasons haven’t been exactly the same, not even close, really. Nevertheless, when the Sun Devils lost to Princeton, and then Utah, and then Stanford, and then dropped a heartbreaker at USC — still unable to sweep a road weekend despite the Pac-12 being at its worst this year — it was natural to start to wonder, is this happening all over again?

Therefore, ASU had to answer that question. It had to answer it at the perfect time, too, with one more month looming between the Sun Devils and where they really prove they’re here to stay.

“It hasn’t sunk in, what this means to me, other than we got another conference win and we’re 6-3,” Hurley said. “Now we’re moving on to next week.”

There’s plenty of basketball left, of course, and ASU has in no way cemented itself in the postseason, not in the slightest. The Sun Devils still have plenty of tests waiting for them in February — including what would, as of today, be the only three Quadrant 1 games they’ll end up playing in the Pac-12 — and just as many landmines that could easily trip them up.

Thus, no one is assuming anything after tonight. To be fair, nobody assumed ASU would lose six of seven after letting one slip to Arizona last year.

Yet, at least the Sun Devils get to be on the positive side of that spectrum for once, right?

“For me personally, growing up here, and just seeing pretty much — there’s really no other way to say it — the dominance that U of A has had over the program,” Cheatham added. “For me to come back home, in my first ever Territorial Cup, to come out victorious, it means a lot to me.”

Regardless of its in-season context, though, this was the game ASU has been waiting for. Arizona. At home.

Hurley knew it. Long before the game tipped off, he made sure his players knew it, too.

According to Zylan Cheatham — who contributed an incredible 22 rebounds in the win — before the Sun Devils’ pregame shootaround, Hurley gathered is players at the court in Wells Fargo Arena and let them watch as he personally ran the width of the floor 92 times.

92. One for each point Arizona has beaten ASU by over the course of his tenure.

“The year we lost by 38, he ran 38 lines,” Cheatham said.

Take a second and chew on that number. Ninety-two. In six games. Quick math — that’s an average of about 15 per game in Hurley’s three years as head coach. That’s not just a monkey on your back, that’s King Kong on your back.

That’s dominance. It’s a three-year reign of terror.

Sometimes, though, all it takes is one. One win can change a season, it can change a team, and it can change a narrative.

ASU proved, Thursday night, that it no longer answers to Arizona in this state and in this conference after three years of doing otherwise.

There are other teams it will have to go through to get where it wants to go next — say, Washington, next Saturday — but beating the Wildcats was the next step in turning this program, under Hurley, into everything that’s been envisioned for it since his hire.

Now, it’s time for the Sun Devils to capitalize.

“That was pretty much his message to us,” Cheatham said of the pregame display. “The suffering’s over, he’s going to suffer one more time, and he’s going to go through what he’s gone through these last couple of years.

“It stops tonight.”