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2018 ESPYs Play of the Year: Winner, Acceptance Speech and Twitter Reaction

Kyle Newport

After helping the Notre Dame Fighting Irish cut down the nets in April, Arike Ogunbowale added some more hardware to her trophy case Wednesday by winning the ESPY for the 2018 Best Play.

Her buzzer-beater against Mississippi State to win the 2018 national championship stood out above the rest:

The shot—which gave the program its second championship—beat out the Philadelphia Eagles' "Philly Special," Florida State third baseman Jessie Warren's diving double play and high school basketball player Blake Peters' 80-foot buzzer-beater to be declared the top play of the year.

It was a tournament of a lifetime for Ogunbowale. Not only did she score 18 and hit the game-winning bucket in the title game, but she also dropped 27 in the Final Four against the previously undefeated UConn Huskies...and she won that game with a buzzer-beater as well:

Little did she know at the time, that would not be her most memorable shot of the tournament.

Her late-game heroics even caught the attention of her idol, Kobe Bryant:

When she was announced as the winner, the internet started to buzz:

Ogunbowale's shot joins the likes of Odell Beckham Jr.'s legendary catch, Jadeveon Clowney's jaw-dropping hit and Abby Wambach's last-minute goal against Brazil in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup as winners of the ESPY Best Play of the Year award.

   

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