By Adam Hensley
Contrary to popular belief, turtles — or, Terrapins, that is — are extremely hard to catch.
Just ask the Hawkeyes.
Maryland (17-2) handed Iowa (11-9) its first Big Ten loss at home, 84-76, on Thursday night.
Ahmad Wagner tied his career high in points (12) and added 6 rebounds and 2 assists in the losing effort.
“He was the difference in the game,” head coach Fran McCaffery said.
“There’s no question about that. He sort of imposed his will on that game, which isn’t easy to do against a team that’s that athletic. But he did, and I’m really proud of him.”
Wagner’s scrappy play off the bench, especially when it came to crashing the offensive glass or hitting free throws, sparked life into a once-dormant Hawkeye team.
The Hawkeyes struggled to find a catalyst early on.
Maryland led by 15 at one point during the first half, and it seemed as though Iowa had no answers.
Defense, an elusive substance for the Hawkeyes for most of the season, helped to keep Iowa from falling into an unmanageable deficit.
Wagner and Nicholas Baer’s boost on defense came after Iowa’s switch to a 2-3 zone.
“We were active,” Baer said. “When you can get stops, then get run-outs and get open 3s, that’s going to help you chip into a lead.”
The nationally televised game had the makings of a high-scoring clash between two of the Big Ten’s best players (Iowa’s Peter Jok and Maryland’s Melo Trimble) on paper.
Injuries, however, plagued Jok; nagging shoulder issues lingered from early on this season, and a recent back injury didn’t help.
Jok followed up his poor 4-point performance against Northwestern with a quiet 14-point outing. Some of his biggest plays of the game weren’t when he was shooting (4-of-12 from the field) but when he took a facilitator role, finding cutting teammates for easy buckets.
On the other hand, Trimble put his team on his back in crunch time.
Six of the guard’s 20 points came on back-to-back 3-pointers, propelling Maryland, which was once down by 3 points, to a 3-point lead.
And when Iowa keyed in on Trimble, other Terrapins stepped up. Five Maryland players, including Trimble, scored at least 10 points.
“[Iowa] has a heck of a team,” Maryland’s head coach Mark Turgeon said. “They’re going to be great. The future is unbelievably bright here at Iowa.”
Iowa’s best basketball came in the second half, in which it outscored Maryland 44-43 and forced 12 turnovers.
In the first half, the rim seemed to shrink for the Hawkeyes, who shot 29 percent from the field — a 20 percentage point decrease from what they shot in their previous three Big Ten games.
Iowa just couldn’t match the Terrapins hot shooting out of the gate.
Maryland rolled to an 8-0 lead, giving the Carver crowd flashbacks to the painful, 32-point loss to Northwestern, a game in which Iowa fell behind early and couldn’t climb back.
Defensive confusion and miscues on offense ignited a fire under McCaffery, and he swapped out three of his starters before five minutes had passed.
Dale Jones saw his first action since fracturing his wrist against Seton Hall on Nov. 17. The senior failed to record a bucket on his two shots (both 3-pointers) but managed to snag a pair of rebounds.
Iowa’s next action will come on Jan. 25 when the team travels to Champaign, Illinois, to face the Illini in an 8 p.m. contest.
