Notre Dame women win NCAA basketball title with stunning buzzer-beater

Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale hit a three-pointer with 0.1 on the clock to lead the Fighting Irish to a 61-58 victory over Mississippi State in the women’s college basketball national championship game Sunday.

Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw called it her toughest season, with only seven healthy scholarship players available for the Final Four. “We just constantly focus on what we have, what we can do, who’s going to step up?” McGraw said ahead of Sunday’s championship game against Mississippi State.

With the score tied at 58 and the clock ticking down, Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale stepped up to be the hero. The junior guard hit a 3-pointer from the corner with a tenth of a second left. The heroics came after Ogunbowale hit a game-winning shot in overtime to shock previously unbeaten Connecticut in a national semifinal game on Friday.

Mississippi State led by as many as 15 points in the third quarter. But as they did against Connecticut, Notre Dame clawed back from a double-digit deficit to even the game at 41 heading into the fourth quarter. “They really dug deep. That Fighting Irish spirit. They would just not be denied,” McGraw said.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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