COLUMBUS, Ohio — Arike Ogunbowale will forever be associated with the words one more.
After the Mississippi State women’s basketball team waited nearly a year to make one more play and win one more game, Ogunbowale delivered one more play to end that dream.
Ogunbowale’s 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds remaining lifted Notre Dame to a 61-58 victory against MSU before a crowd of 19,599 in the national championship game at Nationwide Arena.
“These games come down to one more,” MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. “That’s been our motto. It’s on our national finalists ring a year ago — one more. Notre Dame made one more play tonight, so we congratulate them.”
Ogunbowale’s shot helped Notre Dame (35-3) overcome the largest deficit in the national title history to win the program’s second national championship. The Fighting Irish trailed 40-25 with 6 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Louisiana Tech overcame a 14-point deficit to beat Auburn 56-54 in the 1988 title game.
“I’m just so speechless at this point,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “To see this team come back from yet another huge deficit, to see Arike make an incredible shot, to see the resilience of a team that never gave up.”
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 Connecticut in the national semifinals.
“I was kind of falling toward the baseline,” Ogunbowale said. “When I shot it, I was kind of at a good angle to basket, but once I started falling, I was a little off.”
Notre Dame inbounded the basketball just in front of its bench with three seconds remaining. MSU (37-2) backed Blair Schaefer off inbounder Jackie Young to protect against a pass to Jessica Shepard in the post. The Fighting Irish then used a screen to free up Ogunbowale. The Bulldogs switched on the screen but weren’t able to deny the pass to Ogunbowale.
“We wanted to defend it, but we didn’t deny the ball,” MSU senior Victoria Vivians said. “Me and (Roshunda Johnson) were supposed to deny her and not let her catch it.”
Vivians stayed with Ogunbowale after the catch as she drifted into the right corner. The 5-foot-8 junior guard appeared to be off balance as she launched the shot over the outstretched fingers of Vivians. Her shot swished through the basket as time expired to set off a celebration.
“I was just like, ‘Wow,'” MSU senior Morgan William said. “I knew it was in because I remember it going in and the buzzer going off, so I knew it was good. I didn’t think she was going to hit it two times in a row in two days.
“It was a big shot,” she said. “She is an All-American. She does stuff like that.”
Officials reviewed the play and put 0.1 seconds back on the clock, but that wasn’t enough time for MSU to get a shot off on the final inbounds play.
“Usually our rule is — it’s not usually, it’s the rule, when you switch, you switch to deny, and we just didn’t get the denial,” Schaefer said.
“The kid made a heck of a shot,” he said. “I thought we defended it well right up to the point where the ball went through the net. Other than keeping her from catching it, I don’t know what else you could have done on it.”
The Fighting Irish closed the third quarter on a 16-1 run to tie the game at 41 entering the final 10 minutes. The score was tied four times in the fourth quarter before Roshunda Johnson hit a 3-pointer from the right wing just before the shot clock expired to give MSU a 58-53 lead with 1:57 remaining. But Marina Mabrey hit Notre Dame’s first 3-pointer of the game on the next possession. The shot came off a diagonal pass from post player Jessica Shepard (team-high 19 points) to the left wing with 1:33 to go.
Young’s shot over Schaefer on the left block tied the game with 44.7 seconds remaining.
Teaira McCowan (18 points, 17 rebounds) left a layup on the left block short coming out of a timeout to set up a wild sequence. William appeared to force a turnover, but the Bulldogs gave the ball right back to the Fighting Irish as they tried to push it up court. That turnover gave Ogunbowale (18 points, 6-for-21 shooting) one more chance to be the hero.
“When I saw it travel a little bit, I thought (it was going in),” Ogunbowale said.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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