American basketball player
Arike Ogunbowale
(born March 2, 1997)
[1]
is an American professional
basketball
player for the
Dallas Wings
of the
Women's National Basketball Association
(WNBA). She played
college basketball
for the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
, before being drafted by the Wings with the fifth overall pick of the
2019 WNBA draft
. She was the
Most Outstanding Player
of Notre Dame's
2018 national title run
, hitting game-winning baskets in both the semi-final and
championship game
.
[2]
Early and personal life
[
edit
]
She was born to Yolanda Ogunbowale
[3]
and Gregory Ogunbowale in
Milwaukee
, to Nigerian parents.
[4]
She is the youngest of three children. She is of
Yoruba
descent and her name ”Arike” means "a child you treasure, cherish, pamper and love" in the Yoruba language. Her father served in the Nigerian military while her mother Yolanda played
softball
at
DePaul University
and her brother
Dare
played
football
at the
University of Wisconsin
and is a
running back
for the
Houston Texans
. She is also a cousin of basketball player
Diamond Stone
. From 2009 to 2012, Ogunbowale was part of four Division One Wisconsin State High School Champions soccer teams.
[5]
In April 2018, Ogunbowale was announced as one of the celebrities who would compete on
season 26
of
Dancing with the Stars
. She was partnered with professional dancer
Gleb Savchenko
.
[6]
Ogunbowale and Savchenko were eliminated from the competition on May 7, 2018, placing 7th.
[7]
Career
[
edit
]
High school & earlier
[
edit
]
In high school, she also played as a soccer forward, but decided to focus on basketball after coming to enjoy the sport more.
[8]
Ogunbowale came out of the eighth grade at Our Redeemer Lutheran School in
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
. In her last year at Our Redeemer, Arike helped the Our Redeemer girls’ team win the national championship at the 2011 Tournament of Champions sponsored by the Lutheran Basketball Association of America. She was named the MVP of the tournament.
[9]
[10]
[11]
She went on to play high school basketball at
Divine Savior Holy Angels High School
(DSHA) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. DSHA has long been known for its multiple national and state titles in numerous sports. Ogunbowale returned to DSHA on December 30, 2021 to be inducted into the Hall of Fame there. In the 2014?2015 season, the team won the
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association
Division I title, with Ogunbowale averaging 27.2 points per game. She scored 55 points in a semi-final game against an undefeated team. Ogunbowale was ranked ninth in the world, named 2015
Wisconsin Miss Basketball
and was a McDonald's High School All-America selection.
[12]
[13]
College
[
edit
]
Ogunbowale averaged 11.4 points per game in her
freshman season
at Notre Dame as a reserve player, and became a regular starter
the next year
.
[5]
In
her junior season
, Ogunbowale helped the Fighting Irish win the
2018 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament
, making game-winning baskets in the semifinal against
UConn
and in
the final
against
Mississippi State
.
[2]
Shortly after the end of the 2017?18 school year, the
Atlantic Coast Conference
named her as its female
Athlete of the Year
across all sports, sharing honors with men's winner
Lamar Jackson
of
Louisville football
.
[14]
In her next and
final season
at Notre Dame, she again helped them to
the final
of the
NCAA tournament
but this time, despite contributing 31 points through that match and a tournament average of 22.8 points, she missed 1 of 2 free throws in the final seconds against
Baylor
, with her miss providing the final 1-point margin.
[15]
Professional
[
edit
]
Ogunbowale entered the WNBA league in 2019
[16]
when she was the fifth overall pick in the
2019 WNBA draft
by the
Dallas Wings
.
[17]
Ogunbowale was selected as the WNBA 2021 All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) with 26 points in the team WNBA win versus the women's Olympic squad, Team USA (July 14, 2021).
During the 2019 season, she was third in the league in scoring, averaging 19.1 points per game. She scored 20 or more points in 13 of her final 14 games, including the final 11 of the season. After the season, Ogunbowale was named to the All-Rookie Team.
[18]
In May 2023 she was named the WNBA's Western Conference Player of the Month.
[19]
Leading up to the May award, in the first week of the season from May 20 to May 28, Ogunbowale averaged a league-high 26.7 points, giving Dallas its first 2-0 season start since 2007.
[20]
Over four games in May, she ranked third in scoring in the WNBA. In a game where she scored 21 points against Minnesota, she became the 11th player in league history to score over 20 points in the first four games of the season.
[21]
While playing with the Wings early on, in the winter she played overseas in Turkey and then Russia.
[22]
She coached at the 2022 NBA Academy Women's Camp during an offseason trip to
Saly, Senegal
.
[22]
Also, she played during the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game in Utah.
[22]
Near the end of the 2022 regular season, she suffered an oblique injury and stayed home for the offseason instead of playing overseas, accepting a player marketing agreement from the WNBA. She didn't play for two months.
[22]
In May 2023, after a win over the Atlanta Dream, the
Dallas Morning News
called her the "cornerstone" of the team.
[23]
In June 2023, her parents praised the debut of WNBA shows being aired on national television, allowing her games to be seen outside of arenas.
[3]
In 2023, early that year, she appeared in several State Farm ads.
[8]
She led the
Dallas Wings
to a second win over
Mercury
in front of a sellout crowd in June 2023, scoring a season-high of 35 points for the Wings in a 90-77 win.
[19]
She sank 12 of 21 shots with five assists.
[24]
Career statistics
[
edit
]
WNBA
[
edit
]
Regular season
[
edit
]
Year
|
Team
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2019
|
Dallas
|
33
|
28
|
32.1
|
.388
|
.352
|
.815
|
2.4
|
3.2
|
1.1
|
0.0
|
2.1
|
19.1
|
2020
|
Dallas
|
22°
|
22°
|
34.0
|
.412
|
.336
|
.856
|
2.8
|
3.4
|
1.6
|
0.0
|
2.1
|
22.8
°
|
2021
|
Dallas
|
32
|
32
|
31.3
|
.383
|
.376
|
.864
|
3.2
|
3.3
|
1.1
|
0.0
|
2.1
|
18.7
|
2022
|
Dallas
|
30
|
30
|
31.4
|
.400
|
.352
|
.798
|
3.3
|
3.6
|
1.5
|
0.1
|
1.8
|
19.7
|
2023
|
Dallas
|
40
|
40
|
37.2
°
|
.398
|
.343
|
.876
|
3.4
|
4.5
|
1.7
|
0.1
|
2.6
|
21.2
|
Career
|
5 years, 1 team
|
157
|
152
|
33.4
|
.396
|
.352
|
.842
|
3.0
|
3.7
|
1.4
|
0.0
|
2.2
|
20.2
|
Postseason
[
edit
]
Year
|
Team
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2021
|
Dallas
|
1
|
1
|
35.0
|
.500
|
.500
|
.500
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
1.0
|
0.0
|
1.0
|
22.0
|
2022
|
Dallas
|
1
|
0
|
6.0
|
.000
|
.000
|
–
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
2023
|
Dallas
|
5
|
5
|
37.8
|
.388
|
.351
|
.643
|
4.8
|
5.2
|
1.6
|
0.0
|
1.4
|
19.6
|
Career
|
3 years, 1 team
|
7
|
6
|
32.9
|
.393
|
.367
|
.625
|
3.7
|
4.0
|
1.3
|
0.0
|
1.1
|
17.1
|
College
[
edit
]
Year
|
Team
|
GP
|
Points
|
FG%
|
3P%
|
FT%
|
RPG
|
APG
|
SPG
|
BPG
|
PPG
|
2015?16
|
Notre Dame
|
35
|
398
|
.433
|
.391
|
.71.8
|
3.4
|
1.2
|
0.6
|
0.1
|
11.4
|
2016?17
|
Notre Dame
|
37
|
588
|
.449
|
.454
|
.732
|
4.8
|
1.9
|
1.2
|
0.2
|
15.9
|
2017?18
|
Notre Dame
|
38
|
791
|
.443
|
.382
|
.796
|
5.4
|
2.8
|
1.4
|
0.1
|
20.8
|
2018?19
|
Notre Dame
|
39
|
849
|
.456
|
.359
|
.804
|
4.9
|
3.8
|
1.9
|
0.1
|
21.8
|
Career
|
149
|
2,626
|
.444
|
.393
|
.770
|
4.6
|
2.4
|
1.3
|
0.1
|
17.6
|
Source: College statistics courtesy of NCAA Statistics
[25]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"USA Basketball: Arike Ogunbowale"
.
USA Basketball
. July 7, 2014. Archived from
the original
on April 5, 2018
. Retrieved
April 7,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
"Another Arike Ogunbowale game winner leads Irish to NCAA title"
.
ESPN
. April 1, 2018
. Retrieved
April 7,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
Lumpkin, Taylor (June 12, 2023),
Family of Milwaukee WNBA star praises new push to broadcast games nationally
,
TMJ4
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
"5 things you should know about American basketball star of Nigerian descent"
.
Pulse Nigeria
. 3 April 2018.
- ^
a
b
Boren, Cindy (April 2, 2018).
"Who is Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale, who twice hit the shot of a lifetime in the women's Final Four?"
.
Washington Post
. Washington
. Retrieved
April 7,
2018
.
- ^
"Adam Rippon, Tonya Harding and more superstar athletes to face-off in
Dancing With the Stars
season 26"
.
ABC News
.
- ^
Radcliffe, JR (May 7, 2018),
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Arike Ogunbowale both voted off 'Dancing With the Stars' on Monday
, Milwaukee Star Sentinel
, retrieved
May 8,
2023
- ^
a
b
Roberson, Matthew (May 18, 2023),
Arike Ogunbowale Can Dress, Dance, and Hoop
, GQ
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
"Our Redeemer team goes big"
.
www.wauwatosanow.com
. Retrieved
2022-06-18
.
- ^
"Trophy Case"
.
LBAA
. Retrieved
2022-06-18
.
- ^
"Past Award Winners"
.
LBAA
. Retrieved
2022-06-18
.
- ^
Christopherson, Brett; Thompson, Adam (March 14, 2015).
"WIAA girls state basketball: Saturday's results"
.
Green Bay Press-Gazette
. Green Bay
. Retrieved
April 7,
2018
.
- ^
"Arike Ogunbowale Bio"
.
Notre Dame Women's Basketball
. Archived from
the original
on July 31, 2018
. Retrieved
April 7,
2018
.
- ^
"Louisville's Jackson, Notre Dame's Ogunbowale Voted ACC Athletes of the Year"
(Press release).
Atlantic Coast Conference
. July 5, 2018
. Retrieved
July 6,
2018
.
- ^
"NCAA 2019 National Women's Basketball final"
.
ncaa.com
.
- ^
Sam, Hale (June 6, 2023),
Natasha Howard Is the Running Mate Arike Ogunbowale Always Needed
, Dallas Magazine
, retrieved
June 12,
2023
- ^
Megdal, Howard (10 April 2019).
"Arike Ogunbowale Is Ready for Her Next Shot, in the W.N.B.A."
The New York Times
.
- ^
"Rookie of the Year Collier Headlines 2019 All-Rookie Team .she has confirmed she will be playing for team Nigeria basketball team"
.
WNBA.com
.
- ^
a
b
Rauterkus, Peter (June 9, 2023),
Arike Ogunbowale leads Dallas Wings to second straight win over Mercury, Brittney Griner
,
The Dallas Morning News
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
Dallas Wings' Arike Ogunbowale named Western Conference Player of the Week
,
The Dallas Morning News
, May 30, 2023
, retrieved
June 12,
2023
- ^
Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale wins Western Conference Player of the Month
,
The Dallas Morning News
, June 2, 2023
, retrieved
June 12,
2023
- ^
a
b
c
d
Warren, Peter (May 18, 2023),
Dallas Wings' Arike Ogunbowale might be the new face of the WNBA
,
The Dallas Morning News
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
Warren, Peter (May 20, 2023),
Arike Ogunbowale's dazzling performance stands out in Wings' season-opening win vs. Dream
,
The Dallas Morning News
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
Arike Ogunbowale scores 35 points, lead Wings to 90-77 victory over Mercury, Griner
,
The Associated Press
, June 10, 2023
, retrieved
June 10,
2023
- ^
"NCAA Statistics"
.
web1.ncaa.org
. Retrieved
September 18,
2020
.
External links
[
edit
]
Links to related articles
|
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|
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Athlete of the Year
| |
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Male Athlete of the Year
| |
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Female Athlete of the Year
| |
---|
|