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Iowa star Luka Garza walked to the bench with just over 10 minutes left against the Maryland men’s basketball after nudging Jairus Hamilton in the face for his third foul of the night.
The Hawkeyes were on the wrong side of an 8-3 run by the time he returned less than two minutes later, but it didn’t last long. Garza returned to the field and immediately assisted a hat-trick Jordan Bohannon. Patrick McCaffery then scored three back-to-back runs to make it a 9-0 run in Iowa, crushing any momentum the Terps were building.
Maryland men’s basketball never seemed able to maintain its momentum on Thursday night, falling 89-67 to No.5 in Iowa. The Hawkeyes used a massive 35-7 run in the back half of the first period to build a comfortable lead on the road.
“I don’t know what happened tonight, but we played extremely hard,” said head coach Mark Turgeon. “I’m really proud of this team, how well they have competed. And tonight it wasn’t there for us.
With the loss, the Terps fall to 1-5 in the Big Ten game and 6-6 on the season, now with three straight losses.
The Terps opened the game energetically, scoring two three-pointers to take a 6-0 lead, which forced a Hawkeye timeout to just 1:38 into the game. Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery called the timeout again after a three-point Eric Ayala put the Terps 17-7 with 14:17 left in the first half, but keep Iowa off the scoresheet could not be held down.
“We got off to a good start moving the ball and taking shots,” said Turgeon. “They went to the zone and we just never really did it and let our offense affect our defense.”
With 12 minutes remaining in the half, the Hawkeyes gave the ball to Garza on the left block, but a quick double team forced him out on the wing. As he tried to get back on Jairus Hamilton, a masked Darryl Morsell worked to sweep Garza aside and force a draw and time out with the Terps in front.
Outside of that time, Iowa returned to form. Maryland missed five shots and returned the ball three times before the next media timeout at 7:56, where the Hawkeyes maintained a 21-19 lead.
The Terps’ struggles on offense continued as they eventually missed 11 straight shots, fueling a 17-0 run for Hawkeye. Donta Scott hit a three-point shot from the top of the wrench that ended the scoring drought, but not the problems.
Morsell took the ball and led with 1:40 left in the half and flipped it from behind and into the hands of Jack Nunge. The forward threw the ball into the field to a Keegan Murray who hit him hard at the break.
Iowa finished the first half on a 35-7 run, leading 44-26 at the break. Maryland shot 39.3% in the first half, where 16 of its 28 shots were from three-point rage and only four were successful. Garza led all scorers with 17 points on 6 of 9 shots and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes.
“They are difficult to keep,” Turgeon said. “It’s a great team, I thought we had a really good strategy that was working pretty well. And then we missed all the shots against the zone and decided we weren’t going to come back strong enough.
Aaron Wiggins worked to kick off the second half, as did the first for Maryland, as he scored the Terps’ first 10 points of the second half and the Hawkeyes were only two to two. their own three minutes.
Iowa managed to get back into shape with Joe Wieskamp hitting a layup and Garza hitting a three-point shot. As the Maryland bench screamed for their defense to stop the ball, Wieskamp cut along the baseline and was able to draw a foul and sink the layup.
After an 18-7 run for the Hawkeyes, Maryland tried to find some light with an 8-3 stretch. Garza was knocked off the ground after landing his third foul in the contest – an elbow to Jairus Hamilton’s face – leaving the Terps to run more loosely.
Garza was on the bench for just a minute and 16 seconds before returning to the sprint to trigger a 9-0 Hawkeye run that put this game out of reach again.
“[Iowa’s] a great team, great players individually, ”said Wiggins. “They played 10-11 guys and all the guys came out and helped them win. we tried to throw at them a few different defensive shots, but they’re a great team, they get the ball rolling, well, they managed to score, and we just weren’t tough enough.
Three things to know
1. Maryland just couldn’t contain Luka Garza. The 2020 National Player of the Year saw double-sided teams and sweep-down attempts the entire game, but still managed to get what he wanted. Garza had 17 points and five rebounds in the first half, including a perfect 4 of 4 from the free throw line.
“Luka Garza is as good as advertised,” said Eric Ayala. “The whole team feeds on each other. And for us, we just have to keep fighting, keep competing.
Garza finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes of play.
2. Darryl Morsell came back, but struggled. The senior Terps leader returned just a week after taking an elbow in his face that required surgery, but was not his usual. The Baltimore native finished the game with just three points despite playing 22 minutes. He also had six individual turnovers.
3. The Terps couldn’t control the ball. Maryland struggled to get things done in this one, largely because of their lack of composure on the attacking side. The team committed 16 turnovers, tying their highest total this season. The Hawkeyes took advantage of those mistakes, scoring 20 turnover points.
“The sales figures are unacceptable,” Turgeon said. “Darryl had six, but he wasn’t himself. Turnover [are] not what is good.
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