Arike Ogunbowale has now put in her name in the history books after hitting back-to-back buzzer beating shots in the Final Four and the National Championship games. Credit: @ABC
There is something about a big game that makes certain players excel, Notre Dame junior Arike Ogunbowale is one of them. She helped the Fighting Irish beat the odds and eliminate UConn, one of the greatest college basketball programs, with a jump shot to help punch Notre Dame’s ticket into the ‘big dance’ against Mississippi State.
The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament has been filled with drama as both Final Four games went into overtime. The championship match-up almost had the same fate, as the game was even at 58 until Ogunbowale spun toward the baseline, dribbled twice and launched a shot off one leg when she ended up hitting a three-pointer off an inbounds play at the buzzer to give Notre Dame the national title. Ogunbowale was named the Most Outstanding Player and finished 6-for-21 shooting while scoring 18 points, nothing bigger than those three that broke the tie. Forward Jessica Shepard managed to put up a team-high of 19 points.
This was Notre Dame’s second championship in women’s college basketball, their first happening 17 years ago to the day in 2001.
“To [hit a game winner]twice in one weekend, the biggest stage in college basketball, it’s crazy,” Ogunbowale said immediately after the game.
The original plan on the inbound play was not to even go to Ogunbowale. “Because Jess [Shepard] was playing so well and McCowan had fouled out, we definitely thought we had an advantage in there,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said about going through Shepard instead of Ogunbowale. “Plus, they had a foul to give, I thought. So we didn’t want to do anything that was going away from the basket… Arike hadn’t been shooting the ball particularly well. Jess was.”
The tournament as a whole was good to Ogunbowale as she broke the record for most points scored in a single NCAA tournament after finishing with 145 points, passing Notre Dame alumni Ruth Riley
Mississippi State had early control of the game, have a 30-17 lead at halftime. However, Notre Dame manage to tie the game with a 24-11 run in the third quarter to tie the game up at 41 apiece.
The season was one that many analysts wrote off for the Fighting Irish as four players suffered an ACL tear throughout the season and the roster was down to six players. This team will come back next season, only losing two players to graduation, and will be full strength to defend their national championship against all challengers.
The performances of the Final Four in the women’s tournament can be the boost that women’s sports as a whole needed with the attention that the final three games of the tournament garnished. The view that women sports do not draw can now be changed after all the media and fanfare that was brought to the host city of Columbus, Ohio and sports can be viewed more equal, regardless of the gender differences.
