Notre Dame's women's basketball team hopes to win ESPY Awards

 

The Notre Dame women's basketball team is in Los Angeles for ESPN's ESPY Awards. The Irish are hoping to add a few more awards to their trophy case.

The Irish are nominated for Best Team, Best Moment and Best Play for Arike Ogunbowale's game winning shot at the buzzer.

"It's crazy to be able to be, our team and me, to be able to be nominated for ESPY's in college, that's amazing. That's any kids dream," said Arike.

"Not one, but three. That's what makes it so exciting, there are so many things that you can vote for us on," Head Coach Muffet McGraw said.

In the best play category- it was a shot Arike had taken countless times in practice and even pick up games in the driveway growing up.

"I have taken a lot of crazy shots in practice and when I'm working out by myself, but I didn't actually think it would ever happen in a game," Arike said.

While she made it look easy -- it's not an easy shot, yet she found a way to make that shot twice.

"Two times, winning at the buzzer to win the National Championship. I know there are a lot of other great plays out there but for us it feels so special and it's amazing. I hope we win at least one of them," Coach McGraw said.

The Irish were the epitome of team. Notre Dame was down to just 7 scholarship players and actually had to bring up 3 walk-ons just so they could have full practices.

"We overcame so much and to say that we deserved it more than anyone else, I just feel like we did.  What we went through, I mean that was the hardest season ever. So stressful. Every time we turned the corner it seemed like something else would go wrong. To see the resilience of this group and the perseverance to just keep on going, I think it was amazing. I don't think there is a story like it out there," Coach McGraw said.

"I think we really embody what it means to be the best team. It doesn't come easy to people. Best team is not people that just had an easy road. We definitely had ups and downs, so to be able to overcome that and be able to win the Championship after all the adversity we went through. I think that's what it really means to be the best team," Arike said.

The awards air on ABC57 at 8 p.m.