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Come Fan with UsWednesday, June 24, 2026

The women’s Final Four was everything you could ever want from sports

Overtimes and buzzer-beaters. This was 130 minutes of excellence.

Notre Dame v Mississippi State
Notre Dame v Mississippi State
Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

If you had Sour Patch Kids mixed with Fun Dip, dipped them in chocolate, and then sprinkled that whole mess with War Heads and chugged it Freshman-in-College Style, you’d have about half the rush that the women’s Final Four in Columbus gave fans.

The last 72 hours of the women’s college basketball season were incredible, unrepeatable and perfectly dramatic. It was everything we ask for in sports.

The Final Four in Columbus featured three games, and all three of them couldn’t have been scripted any better. The first game went to overtime, the second ended in a buzzer-beater to upset the undefeated No. 1 team in the country, and the third ended in an off-balance buzzer-beating three from the corner to complete a 15-point comeback. Did I mention the same legend finished off both the second AND third games?

This may have been the best series of games any sports league has ever had.

Here are the three shots that made the 2018 tournament special

  1. Roshunda Johnson’s game-tying three-pointer

To start the weekend, Johnson hit a cold shot from deep with a hand in her face to go to an overtime her Mississippi State team would dominate.

2. Arike Ogunbowale’s step-back deep-two to beat undefeated Connecticut

This is before we knew Ogunbowale was the most clutch college basketball player ever.

3. Ogunbowale’s game-winning three-pointer in the championship game

Ogunbowale is forever a legend; the big name to cap off one of the greatest weekends in any sports’ history; and the savior for Notre Dame hoops.

It’s so good you have to watch the slo-mo:

This was made possible because the best teams made it to the Final Four

There was a lot of backlash against the women’s tournament because all four No. 1 seeds made it to Columbus. It was predictable, so they thought. The No. 1 Connecticut Huskies, who apparently ruin the sport because they are good, were one of them along with Mississippi State, Louisville, and Notre Dame.

Little did anyone know that the four best teams all season would compete and give us a breathtaking three-dish meal of lobster, prime rib, and filet mignon. It was an endless buffet of peak entertainment.

There’s a lot of fun in seeing big upsets, but the men’s tournament is seeing the result of what happens when too many of the great teams leave early — blowouts.

Sometimes it’s just best to see the top talents battle it out.

What do we do now that it’s all over?

Gear up for next year.

Ogunbowale will be back next season as a senior, Mississippi State’s 6’7 center Teaira McCowan could return next yearn if she chooses not to leave for the WNBA Draft, and three of UConn’s starting five will stay in school as well.

Next year will be all about revenge.

Every team that left Columbus without a trophy left by way of a soul-crushing blow.

This is personal now.

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