Last night, the longest win streak in sports history came to a thrilling end. Morgan William, the 5’5” Mississippi State guard nicknamed “itty-bitty,” came up huge with the game-winning buzzer-beater in overtime to stun the Connecticut Huskies. A packed American Airlines Center in Dallas went wild as William’s shot dropped through the bottom of the net, and hysteria ensued on the court with a very emotional Bulldogs team. Mississippi State will now face South Carolina on Sunday, April 2nd for the Women’s NCAA National Championship.
The Huskies, riding a 111 game win streak, lost their first game since November of 2014. Just last year, the Huskies defeated the Bulldogs by 60 points in the NCAA tournament, and no one gave the Bulldogs a chance in this Final Four match-up, making this upset one of the biggest ever. The Huskies had won four consecutive NCAA titles, but this year a new team will be crowned.
There’s an argument that UCONN’s dominance hurts women’s college basketball, but yesterday’s game was the main topic of conversation on a night where the Spurs faced the Thunder and the Rockets faced the Warriors in the NBA. It seemed as though the entire sports world had their eyes on UCONN vs. Mississippi State, which is a big win for women’s sports. UCONN brought the attention, and now the rest of the league must take advantage.