It wasn’t unthinkable, considering that Connecticut also lost on a last-second shot in the 2017 Women’s Final Four, but the reactions of fans everywhere proved it was still a shocker that Notre Dame sent the Huskies home without a title again.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but the Connecticut Huskies looked to have another unstoppable juggernaut en route to their umpteenth women’s basketball championship. They entered Friday’s Final Four tilt against fellow 1-seed Notre Dame 36-0 and were thought to be pretty heavy favorites to advance.
Thanks to an overtime thriller that came down to an Arike Ogunbowale jumper with only a second left, UConn is now 36-1 and out of the tourney. It was eerily similar to last year, when the Huskies were dispatched by Mississippi State on a shot in the closing seconds of overtime as well.
Even with that little bit of deja vu, it’s always a shocker when a program as dominant as the UConn women goes down in such breathtaking fashion, and Twitter was there for it on Friday night.
WE DID THE DAMN THING https://t.co/T7fYFZSLaV
— Ryan Ritter (Gamin' 4 Aven) (@ndtex) March 31, 2018
The bucket heard 'round the world.pic.twitter.com/ChvXHKGzvP
— Stadium (@Stadium) March 31, 2018
I am gonna need a 30 for 30 on this season for Notre Dame.
— LaChina Robinson (@LaChinaRobinson) March 31, 2018
Wow. That was a hell of a finish between UCONN and Notre Dame.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) March 31, 2018
NOTRE DAME BUZZER BEATER THEY TAKE DOWN UCONN WOWOWOWOWOW
— Swish Appeal (@SwishAppeal) March 31, 2018
WHAT. A. GAME.
Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale hit game-winning shot then shouted out Kobe Bryant and the Mamba Mentality...Love her. pic.twitter.com/hymOKFDxOD
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) March 31, 2018
Buzzer beaters vs UCONN are so exciting! Good for you Notre Dame. Mississippi State did that last year. Now they'll meet for the national title. That's the good stuff.
— Patrick Schmidt (@PatrickASchmidt) March 31, 2018
Every single shot in the last like seven minutes of UConn-Notre Dame felt like the most important shot any basketball player has ever taken
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 31, 2018
Honestly if you weren’t watching that Notre Dame UConn game what were you doing with your life
— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) March 31, 2018
https://twitter.com/alexlancedorf/status/979928762170126337
The same fellas who scoffed when I asked the bartender to put up the UConn-Notre Dame game tonight are now high fiving strangers, and have been going nuts for the past half-hour, after watching a college hoops game for the ages.
— Arash Madani (@ArashMadani) March 31, 2018
March. The best.
Yep, that’s pretty much the entire range of amazed reactions, from people praising the game of women;s hoops in general to these particular Final Four games (the other semifinal between Mississippi State and Louisville also went into overtime) to Kobe Bryant getting a shoutout from the player who hit the game-winner. Good stuff.
The Irish will go on to play Mississippi State for the national championship on Sunday night, which might be a good thing for their run, as they lost to Louisville twice already in 2018. One thing’s for sure: If the final game of the women’s hoops season is as good as this one, people will be up for it, UConn or no UConn.