Tommy Lloyd lost only two Pac-12 league games in his debut season with Arizona. On Saturday, the Wildcats lost their fifth league game of the 2022-23 season.

Arizona State’s Desmond Cambridge Jr. rose up just before halfcourt for what amounted to a Hail Mary. But Cambridge ripped the net and lifted ASU to an 89-88 win over the seventh-ranked Wildcats.

Arizona had a 10-point lead with 6:30 to play before ASU fought back to make it tight late. A contested layup from Pelle Larsson gave the UA a one-point lead with 29 seconds remaining. The Wildcats got a stop on the other end, secured by a rebound from Oumar Ballo.

ASU fouled to put him on the free throw line with two seconds remaining. Ballo missed the first — one of 11 misses in 34 attempts — putting the Wildcats in a tricky spot.

Try to make the second and give ASU a chance to set up some kind of a running start to get a shot off out of an inbounds situation? Or intentionally miss the second free throw and either burn the rest of the clock as the rebound bounces around or force a full-court desperation heave.

Ballo made the second and ASU made the Wildcats pay.

Lloyd was asked about the strategy after the game. He owned the decision.

“At the end, you probably could argue that we should have had maybe Oumar miss that last free throw. That’s stuff I’ll wear,” Lloyd said. “That’s on me, not on the guys on those decisions. I just didn’t want to put more on Oumar’s plate.

“It happened fast. Obviously, if we had to do it again we’d do it differently. Maybe on a made free throw we would have somebody on the ball. I’m learning things. From a player’s perspective, they shoot half-courters all the time. They know how hard they are to make. The last thing the player wants to do is foul in that situation. So it kind of puts them in a tough spot.”

Arizona’s defense drew ire from some for playing off as Cambridge let his shot go, but before even crossing halfcourt, the Wildcats were trying to play safe and play the percentages.

“I didn’t want to put him in a position where I tell him to miss and he shoots an airball three feet short and then now they get to inbound the ball,” said Lloyd. “Then maybe we could set our defense and you could argue all these things of that nature. I just wanted to play out because what are the chances of a team making a shot like that? Very slim. Very slim. When a game is close there’s always a chance you can lose but you’re kind of playing the odds a little bit. Maybe we could have slightly put the odds a little bit more in our favor, but we were sitting on pocket aces. That happens sometimes.”