Arizona State beats No. 7 Arizona on half-court buzzer-beater; Twitter reacts
Desmond Cambridge Jr. hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer and Arizona State rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat No. 7 Arizona 89-88 on Saturday.
The Wildcats (24-5, 13-5 Pac-12) built a 10-point lead midway through the second half before going more than six minutes without a field goal as Arizona State pulled ahead by one.
The Sun Devils (20-9, 11-7) went up 86-85 on Warren Washington’s layup with just a minute left, but Pelle Larsson put Arizona back up on a layup with 29 seconds left.
Arizona State’s DJ Horne missed a jumper with four seconds left and the Sun Devils had a final shot after Oumar Ballo hit 1 of 2 free throws.
Catching the ball with 2.4 seconds left, Cambridge left the fans at McKale Center stunned, launching a shot from beyond half-court that sent his teammates charging onto the floor in celebration.
Cambridge finished with 21 points to give the Sun Devils a big boost in their bid to make the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona State stuns No. 7 Arizona
Cedric Henderson Jr. led Arizona with 19 points and Azuoulas Tubelis added 17.
In the first meeting, Arizona State went on a big run to open the second half, but Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd didn’t call a timeout, letting his team play through the adversity. The Wildcats responded with a run over their own for a 69-60 win on a night when neither team shot better than 37%.
The rematch was all about the offense.
The Sun Devils hit as many 3-pointers in the first eight minutes as they did the entire first game and shot 20 of 34 from the floor to lead 46-45.
The Wildcats hit 16 of 27 shots, including Henderson’s buzzer-beating 3, but went 7 of 14 on free throws.
The good shooting trailed off only slightly to start the second half.
Arizona went on a short run to build a six-point lead and the Sun Devils started taking questionable shots, allowing the Wildcats to stretch it to 78-68.
Even after turning up the defensive pressure to get back in it, Arizona State appeared to be down and out — until Cambridge came to the rescue.
Cambridge's incredible shot drew plenty of reactions from around social media:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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