Revisiting Historic ASU Basketball Moment: Cambridge's Game Winner vs Arizona

Bobby Hurley is officially set to enter year 11 of his tenure as head coach of the Arizona State basketball program with an implied mandate to make the NCAA tournament to receive a new contract as his current one expires.

That could've been the case during the 2022-23 season as well - the program was coming off of consecutive losing seasons and momentum appeared to be going the other way.

Hurley added four impact transfers in Frankie Collins, Warren Washington, Devan Cambridge, and Desmond Cambridge Jr. ahead of the season.

The additions proved to be great in compliment of D.J. Horne and other returnees, as the Sun Devils jumped out to an 11-1 start to the year.

They then stumbled during Pac-12 play - going 8-8 before a game in Tucson against rival Arizona on February 25 of that year.

Hurley's team was widely considered to be on the very edge of the bubble at that point - even to the extent that many believed a win was necessary to push the Sun Devils into the field.

Arizona State entered the game as a sizable underdog and began the game with a significant amount of fight despite that truth.

The Sun Devils took a 46-45 advantage into halftime in the rubber match between Hurley and Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd behind a balanced scoring effort from the talented ASU squad.

The second half proved to be even more frantic.

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued before the Wildcats took a 65-59 lead that expanded to six point leads on several other occasions before taking a double-digit lead of 78-68 with under seven minutes left in the contest.

Hurley's squad did not relent - a pair of three-point hits from Cambridge Jr. and Horne gave the Sun Devils a one point lead with under two minutes left.

A Pelle Larsson layup with 29 seconds remaining gave Arizona a one point lead - Wildcats big Oumar Ballo then had the opportunity to put his team up three before missing the first free throw with just over two seconds remaining.

He hit the second with the Sun Devils holding no timeouts.

Jamaiya Neal being able to inbound the ball made all the difference - a prayer from beyond half-court from Cambridge Jr. gave the Sun Devils a historic 89-88 victory in a series that Arizona State has not won a game in since.