March Madness bad beat: Arizona State led by 14 with 3 minutes left and lost

When Arizona State's Kimani Lawrence threw down a dunk and got fouled with 3:01 left, the Sun Devils' Pac-12 tournament game should have been over.

At that point, Arizona State led Stanford 69-55 with Lawrence going to the line. Those who bet Arizona State -3.5 at BetMGM were finding other conference tournament games to watch. ASU was a win. Or, it should have been. Arizona State reached a 99.4 percent win probability with three minutes left, according to ESPN.

Anyone who didn't stick around to watch the final three minutes had to be shocked by the final score.

Somehow, Arizona State lost. In regulation. It takes a heck of a collapse to blow a 14-point lead in less than three minutes, but the Sun Devils did it.

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Lawrence missed the free throw, then Stanford hit a jump shot. No big deal. ASU turned it over and Stanford got a layup, but it was still a 10-point Sun Devils lead with 2:15 to go. Lawrence missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and then Stanford scored again. ASU's lead was down to 69-61 with two minutes left.

It just kept slipping away. Arizona State scored just one point over the final three minutes. When Stanford hit a layup to pull within 69-66, ASU bettors had to know they were in trouble. A 3-pointer with 42 seconds cut Arizona State's lead to 70-69, and there was enough time left that Stanford didn't have to foul. An ASU cover needed some luck, and then the outright win fell away when ASU missed a shot and Stanford got a scramble shot at the buzzer — off the glass, to make it worse — to win it.

And that's how a 69-55 lead with less than three minutes left turns into a 71-70 loss. Arizona State had been getting hot late in the season, just beat Stanford 65-56 in the regular-season finale last Sunday, and had a Pac-12 tourney first-round win all but wrapped up. Then came a serious choke, which ended the Sun Devils' season.

For any Arizona State bettors on Wednesday, hopefully the rest of your conference tournament week goes a lot better.