Is This an Attempt?

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

Let me pose one to you that's just as hard to answer without seeing it. If, in your instance, he would have been fouled after he started to raise his arms "to shoot" and the rest played out as you described, would you call a shooting foul?

Answer this and you have the answer to your question.

That's not a good way to answer that particular question. Just because the player was going to try for goal doesn't mean that he actually did. If he lost the ball before sending it in flight towards the goal, even though he had been in the act of shooting, then the rules say that team control hasn't ended. Team control ends when the ball is in flight during a try for goal.

There was an NFHS interp a couple of years ago that sheds some light on this.
2003-04 NFHS Interps
SITUATION 5:
At the top of the key, A1 beats B1 off the dribble, reaches
the free-throw line, and pulls up for a jump shot. At the apex
of the jump and before the ball is released, B2 comes from the
side and swats the ball out of A1’s hands. The ball goes
behind A1, deflects off A2 and into the backcourt, where A3 is
the first to touch it. RULING: A backcourt violation shall be
called. Team control had continued for Team A because the try
ended before the ball was in flight. (4-12-3a; 4-40-3,4;
9-9-1)

I have the situation in the original post as a backcourt violation.