"This boy has gone through a lot," after beating Arizona, Desmond Cambridge jumped through hoops to get to where he's at

Arizona State basketball player, Desmond Cambridge, #4, after hitting a three-point buzzer-beater vs. San Diego on December 18, 2022.Photo byZac BonDurant/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Seconds felt like minutes for Arizona State as their rivals, the Arizona Wildcats, ranked #7 in the country, Oumar Ballo was on the free throw line, and missed the first free throw attempt, with a crowd rising to their feet, then he made his second free throw. Knotting the game up to 88-86 with 2 seconds left to go in the game.

An inbound pass by Jamiya Neal was passed to #4, Desmond Cambridge Jr., then he would make the buzzer-beating shot of his life.

The half-court buzzer beater across from the Arizona Wildcats bench, was the biggest dagger in the heart of the already-standing Wildcat crowd, as the Sun Devils celebrated an 89-88 victory today, this shot was the biggest moment of Cambridge’s life.

In fact, Cambridge has a crazy story of triumph and tragedy. Transfer and succeeded before he made the biggest shot of his life.

Way before this shot was hit, he was just another sixth-year senior trying to make ends meet from college team to college team. His smarts in high school at the Hun School of Princeton in Princeton, N.J., landed him to a large playing role in the Ivy League at Brown.

All the way back in the 2017-18 school year, Cambridge had the best performance of his career averaging 17.3 points per game, with a .401 field goal percentage. He would struggle a bit in his sophomore campaign, but still maintained an average field goal percentage of 15.7 points per game.

Then tragedy hit that would derail the rest of his season and time on the Brown basketball team. During his junior campaign after transferring from Brown to Nevada, according to NSN Nevada SportsNet, during the 2020-21 season, he started all 17 games for the Wolfpack until his grandmother died unexpectedly.

The most challenging part of his life, finding a role on a team that could utilize him, slowly diminished, but he still performed tobyBackhe best of his ability at Nevada. With 16.3 points per game, a .409 shooting percentage, and 2.5 from three, he came back from the funeral to play for Nevada for one more season, then he transferred to Arizona State the next season after the 2021-22 season.

A redshirt during his junior year during the midst of a global pandemic, to sit in his past pain, he tried to find peace as a Sun Devil.

Today’s buzzer-beater shot against Arizona finally silicified his long, yet draining experience of finding his role on a playing squad. This story made him finally realize the role he has on a team, and now a community.