Arike Ogunbowale channels her inner Mamba for the second time to win it all.


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With the game tied at 58, Notre Dame’s, Ogunbowale, received the ball off the inbound pass, with 0.1 seconds left. She drained a rainbow 3 pointer to give Notre Dame NCAA Basketball immortality.

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The junior guard hit the game winning shot against UConn on Friday night to give her team a chance to play for the National Championship. Lakers Legend, Kobe Bryant, who is an avid UConn fan, was in attendance for the Final Four matchup. Ogunbowale says she embraced Bryant’s presence by going into Mamba Mentality during those final seconds. Throughout his career, Bryant was notorious for his clutch shot making. The fighting Irish now have a Mamba of their own.

The two clutch shot makers exchanged tweets after Notre Dame’s Final Four win. Ogunbowale lived up to Kobe’s expectations and finished the job on Sunday.

“I practice late-game all the time,” said Ogunbowale. “I just ran to Jackie (Young) and said, Throw it to me, throw it to me.” She finished the game with 16 points, and earned most outstanding player honors for the tournament.

The Fighting Irish win their second national championship in school history, after coming up short four times in the last seven seasons. They lost in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

“It’s Easter Sunday, and all the Catholics were praying for us,” said coach Muffet McGraw.

On the other side of the ball, Mississippi State loses in the title game for the second straight year. The Bulldogs lost to South Carolina last year, after ending UConn’s 111 game winning streak.

Notre Dame found many ways to pull out the victory. Down by 13 at halftime, the fighting Irish came into the second half battling their way back. After Mississippi State missed the go ahead lay-up 28 seconds left, and a couple of turnovers from both teams, the Bulldogs fouled the Irish to stop an easy transition lay-up with 3 seconds left. And that was all she wrote. Congrats to the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.