The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (35-3) played in their first NCAA Division One women’s basketball championship game since 2015 where they lost to the Connecticut Huskies 63-53. The Irish defeated the Huskies (36-1) on a last-second three by junior Arike Ogunbowale to move on to the championship game by a score of 91-89. The Mississippi State Bulldogs (37-2) made it to their second consecutive championship game and were looking to avenge last years 67-55 loss to the 2017 national champion the South Carolina Gamecocks.
After being down by 15 to the Bulldogs, the Irish finished the third quarter on a 16-1 run to tie the game at 41 apiece. Mississippi State clung to a five-point lead with less than two minutes left in the game, however, the Irish tied it up with 45 seconds left. After a defensive stop and a forced turnover on the Bulldogs, the Irish had to throw in the ball with three seconds left. Ogunbowale received the ball and threw up a three and swished it to have her second consecutive game with a last-second game-winning shot, and to give Notre Dame their second title in program history, exactly 17 years ago to the day.
This victory gave head coach Muffet McGraw victory number 800 in her career at Notre Dame.
The last time Notre Dame played on Easter, they won their first national championship on April 1, 2001.
“I think I define success as achieving your potential,” McGraw said. “We’ve had a couple of those years where we got to the final that I really felt like that was one that got away. There were probably two of those,” referring to the 2011 and 2015 losses in the national championship to the Texas A&M Aggies and Connecticut Huskies.
