Mississippi State Upsets Goliath UConn in Women's Final Four and Ends the 111 Game Win Streak

By Djack

Last night the most legendary run in sports history came to an end. After winning 111 games in a row and 4 straight national championships the UConn reign of dominance over women's college basketball was brought to a stunning end last night. UConn entered last night as the overall #1 seed in the tournament, Mississippi State entered as a #2 seed, in most cases it'd be predicted to be a close game based on the seeding. However, UConn is so much better than the rest of the NCAA women's teams, so they were favored to win by 21 points. That's a pretty ridiculous spread for a final four game, no matter how great one side is and Mississippi State showed the world that last night.

Mississippi State jumped out to an early lead, forcing UConn into an uncomfortable position of having to play from behind early on. The second quarter was pretty even in terms of scoring, so Mississippi State was able to maintain their first quarter lead. They headed into half time up 36-28. Anyone that knows UConn women's basketball, knows an 8 point lead is nothing with the scoring fire power they're capable of at all times. In the third quarter UConn began to go on a run. Something we've all seen time and time again, they close the gap, take the lead, and never look back. Mississippi State wouldn't allow that to happen though. After UConn tied up the game Mississippi State turned up the defensive intensity and it was a stalemate for the rest of the game. Mississippi had a late lead, it looked like mighty UConn was about to fall, they made the necessary plays, despite missing a crucial free throw that may have won them the game, and made the stops on defense to force the game into overtime. Heading to OT everyone on the planet thought UConn would finally put the jets and continue on their magical run after this scare. That would not be the case however. They couldn't hit a shot neither could Miss. State, both teams had scored 4 points in the overtime period until the final shot. Morgan William had the ball outside the arc with time winding down, she dibbled up to just outside the top of the paint, lofted up a floater over the outstretched arm of defender Natalie Butler, and kush. Nothing but net as time expires, the Goliath UConn has fallen, the streak is over the streak is over.

Morgan William just a few days earlier scored 41 points in the elite eight to lead Miss. State into this Final Four. She dedicated the game to her father who passed away, a truly great story, and if anyone had to hit the buzzer beater to end the historic UConn run, I'm glad it was her. 1,465 days UConn were National Champions, that'll end tomorrow when either South Carolina or Mississippi State win. 835 days in a row the women's huskies went without a loss, and that came to an end last night. There'll probably never be run quite like that again, so to witness history like that happen in the way it happened is something that everyone watching will remember forever. In terms of women's basketball that had to be the biggest game ever and must've done the best ratings in the history of the sport, which is really nice to see the sport finally get some recognition. What a night it was in sports, hopefully the men's final four can match the quality of play we saw last night in that amazing game.