WATCH: UC-Riverside beats Arizona State on full-court prayer

On3 imageby:Simon Gibbs11/11/21

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The UC-Riverside Highlanders on Thursday improved to 1-1 in improbable, perhaps impossible fashion, nailing a buzzer-beating, three-point shot from the length of the court to beat the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Arizona State fell to 1-1 with the 66-65 loss, but the Sun Devils lost more than the game alone. Subsequent tweets from UC-Riverside and other notable college basketball accounts continued to troll the heavily-favored Sun Devils after the game’s last shot.

Arizona State gained possession with 20 seconds left in the contest; at the time, the score was knotted at 63 apiece. The Sun Devils then called timeout, and head coach Bobby Hurley drew up a well-executed play, which saw junior guard Luther Muhammed make a go-ahead layup with two seconds left.

Two seconds, evidently, was more than enough time for UC-Riverside. The Highlanders inbounded the ball to J.P. Moorman II, and the rest was history, as he nailed the game-winning shot.

Moorman’s shot from roughly 75 feet found nothing but net, and with that, UC-Riverside took a 66-65 edge over Arizona State as time expired.

CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein heard it from the UC-Riverside Twitter account after the program’s unfathomable shot. UC-Riverside had this to say to Rothstein, who tweets, “BOBBY ******* HURLEY” after just about every Arizona State victory.

Rothstein responded to the UC-Riverside account with another of his many catchphrases:

UC-Riverside relied heavily on junior guard Flynn Cameron, who poured in 18 points on six-of-nine shooting, while adding two rebounds and two assist. Moorman, who hit the game-winner, was responsible for 14 points of his own, making five of his 16 shots, while also adding 11 rebounds — seven of which were on the offensive glass — and four assists. UC-Riverside had two double-digit rebounders in Moorman and McRae, as the Highlanders out-rebounded the Arizona State Sun Devils by a hair, finishing with a 41-to-40 advantage.

Senior forward Kimani Lawrence led the charge for Arizona State, scoring 19 pounds on nine-of-12 shooting with 12 rebounds. Lawrence played 38 of the game’s 40 minutes, and Marcus Bagley, the Sun Devils’ second-highest scorer, dropped 19 points on five-of-11 shooting in 30 minutes of burn.

After dropping a buy-game, the Arizona State Sun Devils have just one more lighter game against the ASUN’s University of North Florida, before facing a much tougher schedule. After UNF, Arizona State will play at San Diego State, followed by a neutral-site game against No. 8 Baylor, before playing two-straight Pac-12 opponents in Washington State and No. 13 Oregon.