Inside Des Cambridge Jr.’s half-court shot against Arizona

(Photo: Alyssa Buruato/WCSN)

Half-court buzzer beaters are one of the most special moments in sports. As the clock winds down, a player heaves up a shot with a prayer, just hoping the ball finds the bottom of the net. Many players are lucky to make a single heave in their career.

Down two points with 1.6 seconds left on the clock, senior guard Desmond Cambridge released one of those prayers and nailed his second-half court buzzer-beater in just over five weeks. This time it was to put Arizona State men’s basketball (20-9, 11-7 Pac-12) over archrival Arizona (24-5, 13-5 Pac-12) 89-88 and potentially save ASU’s NCAA Tournament hopes.

“I hope people are watching to see the level of the game,” head coach Bobby Hurley said. “That’s what [the] postseason asks for. They want teams that could perform like that on a national stage, and I think you saw two teams that should be in the postseason.”

Not only is it Cambridge’s second buzzer beater in five weeks, but it is also his second half-court buzzer against one of the top-two teams’ the Pac-12. The first one came at the end of the first half against then-No. 5 UCLA but was mostly forgotten due to ASU’s eventual loss to the Bruins. This one no one is likely to forget anytime soon.

“If I’m being completely honest like I make those shots all the time, but that shot I did not think it was good,” Cambridge said with a slight smirk on his face. “I really just wanted it to be a nice miss, and everyone in the crowd go, ‘Ohhh.’ Then it went in, and I literally could only scream because it still doesn’t make sense to me that that happened.”

Cambridge, like the rest of the ASU roster, came out of the gates on fire, although his methods were slightly different. Cambridge has consistently been one of the Sun Devils’ best 3-point shooters, and he leads the team in 3-point attempts, but to open up Saturday’s game, the Louisville native decided to attack the rim, making several difficult shots. He ended the half with eight points on four field goals and no 3-point attempts.

Cambridge’s final first-half field goal put the Sun Devils up 46-42 before senior guard Cedric Henderson Jr. drilled a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to cut ASU’s lead to one heading into the second half.

Coming out of the break, Arizona took the lead and controlled most of the period, leading by 8 with a little under five minutes to go. From that point on, it was the story of a trio of triples from Cambridge.

Just after the clock dipped under five minutes, Arizona had once again extended its lead to eight, this time with a pair of free throws from junior guard Kerr Kriisa. Cambridge then came down the court, pulled up – as he’s done often this season – and drained the first of his second-half shots from beyond the arc right in the face of junior guard Pelle Larsson.

The triple was emblematic of the fight ASU showed all night, returning every Arizona punch with one of their own.

“We’ve been in a lot of games like this,” Hurley said. “We’ve beaten really good teams in close games, so we have something to fall back on. Even though we were down eight or down six, we still wanted to make a play to get it to one possession and put some game pressure on them late.”

A little under a minute later, the Cambridge brother connection, which has been one of the Sun Devil’s biggest weapons, came up huge for the Sun Devils once again.

Off a missed 3-pointer from sophomore forward/guard Jamiya Neal, Arizona junior forward Azuolas Tubelis corralled the rebound before falling to the ground, where senior forward Devan Cambridge stole the ball and dished it to his brother wide-open on the wing. Des Cambridge’s second three-pointer of the half cut the Wildcats’ lead down to one, the lowest it had been in nearly 13 minutes of game time.

Later in his postgame press conference, Desmond came out wearing Devans’ chain with the letters ‘CAD’ all capitalized. When asked what it meant, Desmond emphatically responded, “Cambridge All Day.”

Desmond’s final 3-pointer of the night is one that has already garnered names such as ‘Gamebridge’ and ‘The McKale Mary.’ It is a shot that will last in the memories of ASU fans for years to come and a shot that the Sun Devils love to practice.

“I just love shooting the ball,” Desmond said. “With my teammates [and] brothers, we shoot half-court shots all the time. We literally were doing that actually yesterday in a friendly competition with the team. I guess it paid off.”