The No. 23 Iowa women’s basketball team’s 25-straight wins in Carver-Hawkeye Arena ended on Jan. 10 against No. 8 Maryland.
By Mario Williams
The Iowa women’s basketball team entered Carver-Hawkeye on Jan. 10 seeking to pull off an upset, but No. 8 Maryland pulled away in the third quarter, pushing aside the upstart Hawkeyes, 76-56.
The loss was the Iowa second consecutive in the Big Ten.
From the tip, the Terrapins set the tempo; Maryland took an early 7-1 lead after a lay-up, a jumper, and a 3-pointer. Hawkeye sophomore Chase Coley attempted to get the Hawks rolling, but she missed a lay-up and two jump shots. After that, she headed to the bench, and freshman Megan Gustafson came in.
It took Iowa five minutes and a bit of change to get its first field goal, when junior Ally Disterhoft drove into the lane for a quick lay-up on the left to make the score 8-3. Iowa trailed as few as 3 points at 11-8, after sophomore Whitney Jennings hit a jumper and Disterhoft nailed a 3. However, the Terps held Iowa at bay, and the Hawks were down by 4 when the first quarter came to a close. Maryland extended the lead to 10 by 4:30 left in the second quarter.
Maryland excelled against Iowa’s zone defense, handling the ball well both inside the paint and around the perimeter. The Terps’ powerhouse offense hurt Iowa during much of the contest, and the Hawkeyes trailed 40-30 at the half.
Once again, the Hawkeyes made numerous turnovers (16 in the game), leading to 18 Maryland points.
“I feel like a lot of the turnovers were unforced errors,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “I feel like they’re a little bit of mental errors. We got to get control of this. This has been too many games in a row where we’ve had way too many turnovers.
“That’s not Iowa basketball. We’re very disappointed in that. Not taking care of the ball, not passing the ball for high-percentage shots. That’s not what we practice every day.”
Once the second half rolled around, the Hawks couldn’t stop Maryland’s Brionna Jones as she scored 10 points in the first nine minutes of the third quarter. She finished with 15 on the night, along with 11 rebounds.
“Brionna Jones is probably the best center in the Big Ten, in my opinion,” Bluder said. “I think she’s outstanding. We have a freshman battling against her. I thought Megan played her heart out there against her.”
While the young Hawks kept knocking on the door, it wasn’t enough as Maryland never let go of the lead and snapped Iowa’s 25-game winning streak at home.
Iowa scored well under its average of 74.2 points per games and shot 38.2 percent from the field. They also shot 18.2 percent from behind the arc, only making two 3-pointers on 11 attempts.
“We’re in a tough stretch. But we cannot have a hangover tonight that affects us on Wednesday night,” Bluder said. “We’ve got to bounce back.”
Iowa now sits 2-2 in the Big Ten with road games against Wisconsin and Michigan State coming up n Jan. 13 and 16.
