The unexpected event on Saturday was that KML's defender helped off of her to stop Kelly. Kelly saw it and fed KML who was wide open. The decision by the defender to help off KML was a major mistake that could easily have cost ND the game. Agreed
Do you really think that Muffit instructed her team in the huddle, "Let KML take a 3 if you have to; after all, she has a bad ankle"? I don't think that she said that, or that any coach would ever say that when playing UConn in the final seconds. I think Muffit told her players to make anyone other than KML beat them. And the defender did what she did without orders. Help defense is practiced so often that it becomes totally ingrained in a player's mind. Unless told in the huddle, repeatedly, to stay on Mosqueda-Lewis regardless of the circumstance, she is going to respond by practiced instinct. On the other side of the coin, there was much crticism/conjecture about the lack of help Hartley received when Diggins beat her going right. It is hard to say if Notre Dame's movement diverted all eyes or if the UConn defenders were ordered to stay home.