Notre Dame broke that mark thanks to the heroics of Ogunbowale, who hit the buzzer-beater Friday night to lift Notre Dame to a 91-89 victory against CT in the national semifinals. The guard hit the game victor with one second left in overtime. Mississippi State beat UConn in last year’s Final Four but came up short against SC in the championship game.
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Notre Dame found many ways to pull out the victory.
Vivians stayed with Ogunbowale after the catch as she drifted into the right corner.
Notre Dame stormed back in the third quarter. Ogunbowale had already had her shining moment two days earlier when, in overtime, she hit a deep two to end the University of Connecticut’s undefeated season and to propel her team to the championship game.
“That last play, there was just a lot going on”, said Ogunbowale, who had struggled from the floor for much of the game.
Ogunbowale’s last-second shot Sunday was her only 3-pointer of the night, and capped a 6-for-21 shooting performance.
“And one of the things we pride ourselves on is developing confident, capable young women, and one of the sportscasters Friday night said, ‘there is no more confident athlete playing women’s basketball than Arike Ogunbawale, ‘” Bartel said. Give me Sister Jean but, my God, I want Arike Ogunbowale more. But Marina Mabrey hit Notre Dame’s first 3-pointer of the game on the next possession.
Honorable mention goes to Jessica Shepard.
Miss State’s two stars, Victoria Vivians and McCowan were terrific. McCowan, a junior, had 18 points and 17 rebounds to record her 29th double-double of the season. The previous record for a single NCAA tournament was 75.
This is the first National Championship for Notre Dame Women’s Basketball since 2001.
How it was won: Notre Dame overcame a awful first half in which it was held to a season-low 17 points. She finished with one more point than McCowan, who fouled out with three seconds to play.
“We didn’t get two stops when we needed to get a stop, and they obviously executed on offense and got two good buckets, and the game was tied”, Blair Schaefer, a senior guard from Starkville said. Yet they managed to stay in the game, and for the seventh time this season came back from a double-digit deficit to win.
A 16-1 run to end the third quarter tied the game. The score was knotted 41-41 entering the final period.
She the youngest of three kids by Gregory and Yolande Ogunbowale.
Rebecca Lobo (l.), Kara Lawson (m.) and Adam Amin (r.) were stunned when Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale hit her second-game winning shot of the women’s basketball NCAA tournament.
The court was cleared, and Mississippi State tossed a futile inbounds pass into the lane as the buzzer sounded. She also made the winning shot in Friday’s semifinal victory over CT. Easily, she was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
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MSU even had the slogan engraved on its national finalist rings as a reminder of just how close it had been to claiming the school’s first national title.
