HARTFORD, Conn. -- Note to Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma about the No. 1 seed Penn State Lady Lions: play zone defense.

The Achilles' heel of the Lady Lions was extremely apparent Saturday afternoon when eighth-seeded Notre Dame sat back on defense and played zone. Penn State had few answers for the swarming, trapping defense that Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw used against it.

The defense stymied any offense that the Lady Lions tried to run and caused 14 Penn State turnovers, not to mention the dozen or so times that the shot clock almost ran out and the Lady Lions were forced to throw up an errant attempt.

This defense is nothing new for the Irish. Instead, it's commonplace for Notre Dame and it seemed that it was the perfect strategy to stop the slow half-court offense that Penn State got stuck playing.

"They came in here with a great game plan to stop us," Portland said.

It was a great game plan, to say the least. The question is, if Notre Dame always plays a zone, then why weren't the Lions prepared to break the zone. It might have been done with either quick, crisp passes along the perimeter until a hole opened for an entry pass to the post player; or with an offense run through the high post, with the guards continuously cutting through the lane and around the arc.

Penn State guard Tanisha Wright wasn't happy with the way the offense ran, but wasn't sold on the idea that the zone was the main culprit. Instead, she said it might have been the team's attitude heading into the game.

"Everything we did was just slow," Wright said. "We didn't feel a sense of urgency to get into our sets. It was basically like a walk-in thing."

Whatever the reason, it was evident that Penn State's offense couldn't handle the zone that Notre Dame played all game. There wasn't much of an adjustment in the second half, as the ball was repeatedly passed slowly from guard to guard, until one of them was forced to drive into the shark's mouth, usually resulting in a turnover. What's hard to understand is how an extended zone could stop a team that shoots so well, especially when one player has the quickest release this side of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Penn State has shot well from three-point range this season, but finished the game 6-of-21 from behind the arc.

"We jack up a lot of threes," Lady Lion point guard Jess Strom said after the game. "And if they're not going in, we're shot."

Shot they almost were, maybe even should have been. But, for whatever reasons, the basketball gods were with them on Saturday. This team can't rely on that tonight. If they do, they'll be watching the Final Four, instead of playing in it.