Iowa came into tonight’s game against Maryland having lost six of their seven.
The Hawkeyes (14-11, 5-9 B1G) continued their freefall down the Big Ten standings after the 101-75 loss to the Terrapins.
Maryland (20-6, 10-5 B1G) hit their first seven shots from the field including being a perfect 4-4 from the three-point line.
Maryland’s trio of perimeter players did most of the damage in the first half. Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Selton Miguel and Rodney Rice did most of the damage in the first half. The trio would combine to shoot 11-20 for 33 points in the first 20 minutes.
Iowa was down 24-23 at the under-4 media timeout. Seydou Traore and Payton Sandfort had a lot to do with that. The two had 17 of the Hawkeyes’ 23 points.
Iowa would go on a 7-0 run capped by Traore’s three-pointer giving the Hawkeyes’ a 34-31 lead. Their first since it was 11-10.
The Hawkeyes would go into halftime with a 51-47 lead.
The Terrapins opened the second half by scoring the first eight points, all by Rice, and drawing the third foul against Traore.
Traore would pick up his fourth with 17:15 left in the half.
Maryland would extend their run to 21-4 to open the second half and in 6:01, Iowa sent from four to down 17.
The Hawkeyes’ worst nightmare was coming true on the defensive end of the floor. Maryland was still hitting three-pointers and Queen was starting to become a factor in the paint.
Iowa’s offense cooled in the second half.
The Hawkeyes would shoot 29.7% in the second half.
With the Hawkeyes missing a lot of jump shots, the Terrapins were able to get out and run and score easy baskets.
Pryce Sandfort would lead Iowa with 15 points. Gillespie led five Terrapins in double-digits with 26 points.
The Terps would lead by as much as XX in the second half.
Three-Point Shooting
If Iowa wanted a chance to win, they probably had to make 15+ three-pointers. That’s something this team can do. But that was based on the assumption that Maryland would concentrate on taking advantage of Iowa’s inability to cover Derik Queen and Julian Reese.
What ended up happening was Queen and Reese picked up momentum as the game went on and Maryland matched Iowa from the three-point line.
Failure to Identify the Hot Shooter
Coming into the game, Maryland had an advantage in the paint with Queen and Reese. The inside duo was probably at the top of the scout but after Rice got hot, there needed to be an adjustment. There wasn’t one.
To make things worse, when Rice wasn’t getting wide open looks it was Gillespie. If they hit contested threes then you can chalk it up to “its their night” but that wasn’t the case. It was wide open look after wide open look.
Traore’s Foul Trouble
Traore was the difference maker the Hawkeyes needed for him to be in the first half, but two fouls changed the trajectory of the game. Both were unnecessary.
The first was a silly reach-in and the other was an illegal screen in the open floor.
Traore went out at the 17:14 mark, the score was 55-53 Maryland.
He returned with 7:35 left and the Terrapins up 86-62.