TAMPA, Fla. – This time, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team needed Arike Ogunbowale a lot earlier.
A year after Ogunbowale hit an amazing pair of buzzer-beaters in the Final Four, the Fighting Irish star rushed to the rescue early in the fourth quarter.
Ogunbowale scored 14 of her 23 points in the final period, leading a rally from a nine-point deficit with eight minutes left to help the 2018 national champions beat the University of Connecticut 81-76 Friday night in a national semifinal for a return trip to the NCAA tournament’s title game.
“I don’t think it was any mystery – you know who was going to be taking the majority of their shots in the fourth quarter,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “It’s the way they’ve always played since Arike’s been there. She still has to make those shots, and she did. She’s an almost impossible matchup one on one.”
The Irish (35-3) will face Baylor for the crown Sunday night, trying to become the fourth school to win consecutive championships, joining UConn, Southern California and Tennessee.
Baylor beat Oregon 72-67 in the night’s first semifinal, setting up a rematch of the 2012 national championship game the Lady Bears won 80-61.
This game between the Huskies and the Irish was a rematch of last season’s Final Four classic that Notre Dame won on a last-second shot by Ogunbowale. This one – the latest chapter in the greatest rivalry in women’s basketball over the past decade – provided a fitting encore.
Irish coach Muffet McGraw celebrated by dancing a little jig at midcourt after this comeback victory.
Notre Dame trailed 64-55 with 7:52 left before scoring 13 of the next 16 points to take a 68-66 lead on Ogunbowale’s short jumper with 3:56 left. The teams then traded the lead five times over the next few minutes, with Jessica Shepard hitting a jumper from the foul line with 1:27 left to put the Irish ahead 75-74.
After Crystal Dangerfield missed a drive down the lane, Ogunbowale hit two free throws to give the Irish a three-point advantage with 58.3 seconds left. On UConn’s next possession, Brianna Turner came flying out of nowhere to block Napheesa Collier’s layup attempt, and then Ogunbowale hit two more free throws to make it a five-point game.
“My only mindset was that UConn’s season was going to end tonight no matter what it took,” said Turner, who during the game set the school career record with her 371st block. “If I was going to get a rebound, scoring, boxing out, playing hard ‘D,’ we were going to get the win.”
Katie Lou Samuelson scored 20 points – all in the second half – for the Huskies (35-3).
“Obviously, you know, we’re incredibly disappointed that we didn’t win the game, but we played a great team and they played really, really well when they had to,” Auriemma said. “We still had a chance. We just weren’t good enough tonight to do it. They were better than us tonight.”
The star matchup between Ogunbowale and Samuelson never got going in the first half. Ogunbowale scored just two points before the break, while Samuelson was shut out.
Samuelson was the first to hit in a big way, scoring 15 points in the third quarter. Her three foul shots with a second left gave UConn a 54-52 lead.
The Huskies’ lead kept growing before the Irish rallied in front of a sellout crowd of 20,062. Ogunbowale had 14 points in the fourth quarter.
These two teams have had a habit of playing on the game’s biggest stage. UConn and Notre Dame have now played seven times in the national semifinals or title game since 2011 – the Irish hold a 4-3 advantage.
There has been a different vibe around UConn this season. Unlike the previous two years, they don’t have the burden of a record winning streak or an unbeaten season. Heading into their showdown with the rival Irish on Friday night, the Huskies had already lost two games this season and didn’t have, as Auriemma put it, “the fear of losing.”
UConn had never lost three straight years in the Final Four until now.
The Huskies jumped out to a 13-4 lead behind strong play from Collier and a stellar defensive effort as the Irish missed 14 of their first 16 shots. The Irish closed the opening period with an 8-3 burst to only trail by four after one quarter.
The Irish continued their run and took a 22-18 lead on a putback by Ogunbowale. It was her only basket of the first half as she went 1-for-7 from the field.
“She just got off to a slow start in a lot of ways. She feels like she has to carry us because she’s the leading scorer,” McGraw said. “I thought she settled in at halftime. Her teammates really help her. They continue to encourage her, and she came alive in the second half.”
The teams then traded the lead over the rest of the half with the Christyn Williams’ jumper in the lane just before halftime, giving the Huskies a 30-29 advantage.
Collier and Samuelson finished their career with 4,743 points, the highest combo for a pair of classmates in program history.
This was the 50th meeting between the schools, and UConn holds a 37-13 lead in the all-time series.