Meet the college basketball star whose last-second shot helped make history
The game-winning shot in the women's basketball NCAA championship is continuing to rock the sports world. Arike Ogunbowale's three-point buzzer beater lifted Notre Dame to a 61-58 win over Mississippi State Sunday night marking the biggest comeback in women's national championship game history. It also gave the team its first championship title in 17 years.
But Ogunbowale says the shot wasn't a fluke – it was meant to be.
"I was like it can't be, like. I was like I must have traveled like they must have called it off, like, something must have happened like I know this shot did not count," Ogunbowale told CBS News' Adriana Diaz.
The team had originally planned to pass the ball to another player.
"A lot of people were crowding her. ... I was like give it to me, give it to me, I came too close and then she gave it to me and then I shot it," Ogunbowale recalled.
And with a tenth of a second on the clock, the Fighting Irish became the Victorious Irish.
"I am just so speechless at this point, to see this team come back from her another huge deficit, to see Arike make an incredible shot, to see the resilience of a team that never gave up," said head coach Muffet McGraw.
But it's not just her game-changing buzzer beater that's captured the nation, it's that she had two in a row. Two days earlier, their game with the University of Connecticut ended similarly.
"I can't believe that either, like, on the biggest stage of like women's basketball college that two buzzer beaters," she said.
University of Connecticut fan and NBA legend Kobe Bryant saw it from the stands and tweeted, "Big time shot Arike!....we love seeing great players making great plays."
"I mean I've been looking up to him for forever, that's the reason I wear number 24 so to have your idol recognize you that's just crazy," Ogunbowale said.
That recognition lead her to tweet, "Wow, my life is complete" – to which Bryant replied, "it's complete by finishing the job." And she did.
It's been 17 years since Notre Dame won it all and Monday they brought their new trophy home to the tune of trumpets.
"Just the attention, the media attention, people really gonna tune in, okay women's basketball was really exciting, they have some great players there," she said. "And yeah the buzzer beaters. People love buzzer beaters in March Madness."
The 21-year-old has now catapulted into college basketball stardom and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament. But she says the glow of the win won't help with the crushing load of homework she has to catch up on. After graduating, Ogunbowale hopes to make it to the WNBA.
