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Easter Miracle: Notre Dame Wins National Title

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Fighting Irish players celebrate Arike Ogunbowale's (24) Instant Legend three-pointer with 0.1 seconds left to win the national title.
Fighting Irish players celebrate Arike Ogunbowale's (24) Instant Legend three-pointer with 0.1 seconds left to win the national title. (Aaron Roster/USA TODAY Sports)
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Easter Sunday celebrates the most miraculous day ever on the Christian calendar.

Easter 2018 will be remembered as the culmination of the most amazing — even most miraculous — season in Notre Dame women’s basketball history.

Trailing 30-17 at halftime, down 15 in the second half (40-25) and still behind 58-53 with two minutes remaining, the Fighting Irish scored the final eight points, with junior All-American guard Arike Ogunbowale’s well-defended and slightly off-balance three-point basket with 0.1 seconds left earning 35-3 Notre Dame its second national title (the other coming in 2001) and head coach Muffet McGraw her 800th career win at the school.

Less than 48 hours earlier, Ogunbowale converted what is now the second-most famous shot in the program’s history to defeat No. 1 and 36-0 UConn in overtime, 91-89. This time it was to vanquish the now 37-2 Bulldogs.

“I was thinking two nights in a row, I don’t know if this is going to happen again, a miracle,” McGraw told ESPN after the contest of her thoughts when Ogunbowale released her shot. “But it is Easter Sunday and all the Catholics out there were praying for us.”

After Mississippi State’s 6-7 center Teaira McCowan, who finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, fouled out with three seconds remaining, Notre Dame planned on the in-bounds play on its side of the court to get the ball inside to 6-4 junior Jessica Shepard (19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and six rebounds).

The Bulldogs defended Shepard well, so a cutting Ogunbowale took the pass from sophomore guard Jackie Young, took two dribbles to her right and launched the rainbow shot right in front of the Notre Dame bench, swishing it through and immortalizing herself as an instant Fighting Irish legend.

“I work at it in practice all the time — my teammates can attest to that,” Ogunbowale told ESPN. “It just felt right.”

For much of the contest, it appeared the Fighting Irish women would be college basketball bridesmaids for the fifth time in eight seasons because of a miserable second quarter in which they were outscored 13-3 to enter the halftime locker room down 30-17.

After building an early 12-6 advantage, Notre Dame was outscored 24-5 the rest of the first half, finishing with 12 turnovers, 7-of-23 shooting from the field (0-of-3 from three-point range) and outrebounded 22-16. MSU had seven offensive rebounds in the first half that resulted in 12 second-chance points, compared to Notre Dame’s one for two points.

“We’ve been down before so we knew we would be able to come back, and everybody stepped up at the right time,” Ogunbowale said.

“We did so many things wrong in the first half,” McGraw said. “We just came out with a new belief, a new motivation …They really dug deep, the Fighting Irish spirit. They would just not be denied. Such resilience, perseverance, a great life lesson for them.”

Just like the Bulldogs dominated the second quarter, Notre Dame, after falling behind 40-25, finished the third quarter on a 16-1 run to knot the score at 41, thanks mainly to basically scrapping the half-court sets on offense and forcing the tempo to speed up.

The Irish took two-point leads several times in the final 10 minutes but were never able to get enough separation while holding MSU without a field goal for eight minutes.

With fatigue finally appearing to catch up to Notre Dame, the Bulldogs appeared to apply the dagger when Roshunda Johnson’s three-pointer with 1:58 left gave them a 58-53 cushion.

However, junior guard Marina Mabrey answered with her own three-pointer — the first of the evening for Notre Dame — with 1:36 remaining. After McCowan picked up her fourth foul, senior Kathryn Westbeld fed Young, whose short bank shot knotted the score at 58 with 46 seconds left.

MSU set up McCowan for a point-blank lay-up under the basket that missed and was rebounded by Mabrey, who turned it over on her end of the court. In the ensuing scramble, she and Young forced an MSU turnover near midcourt that resulted in McCowan fouling out.

That set up Ogunbowale’s final shot — and a 2-for-2 ending by the Irish beyond the arc in the final 1:46 after the 0-of-7 stat line the first 38:14.

It is the epitome of “the clutch gene," resulting in a second national title that was won by Notre Dame on April 1 in the closing seconds — after defeating UConn in the semifinals both times.

No fooling.


Three-Point Play

1.Cardiac Comebacks

This was the fourth straight NCAA Tournament contest Notre Dame rallied after appearing to fall precariously behind in the first half. It was down 37-24 to Texas A&M in the Sweet 16 before winning 90-84, trailed Oregon 46-37 prior to rallying for an 84-74 conquest, seemed primed to gets it doors blown off when trailing UConn 41-30 — and this time the 40-25 deficit in the second half versus MSU had going to the well once too often written all over it. The comeback versus the Bulldogs was the largest ever in a championship game.

Fighting Irish, indeed.


2. Second-Half Team

Notre Dame shot 15-of-29 from the field in the second half, but what was especially crucial was getting Young back into the lineup after she sat almost the entire second quarter with foul trouble. Ogunbowale was 1-of-10 in the first while Mabrey was 1-of-5 and had seven turnovers.

In the second half, Ogunbowale was fiercely aggressive taking the ball to the basket and was 5-of-11 from the field, while Mabrey settled in (only two second-half turnovers) with Young to provide the offense with more fast-paced action and pretty much getting away from half-court sets in which they were more flummoxed.


3. Iron Five, Plus One

While the thin bench of the Irish has been well documented and placed a heavy onus on the starting five, 6-4 fifth-year senior Kristina Nelson continued to supply quality time off the bench with 24 minutes versus the Bulldogs. She took two charges again to go with four rebounds, a block and a basket — but more importantly was able to body up with McCowan enough (including four fouls), along with Shepard and Westbeld, to limit her to 7-of-19 from the field.

Every ounce of ability was milked out of the top six in this tournament, which is what made a national champion.

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