Hawkeyes Fade in Loss at Maryland
Iowa came close to winning its two previous road games coming into Wednesday night at Maryland. The Hawkeyes led with less than two minutes remaining at Indiana and were tied with Penn State with four minutes on the clock.
Faulty play down the stretch saw them drop those two contests. History repeated itself in College Park.
Iowa relinquished another second-half lead away from home in falling, 78-66, to the Terrapins. The Hawkeyes led from the 16:57 mark of the first half all the way until 6:57 remained in regulation.
They were ahead by six points at halftime after leading by as much as 11 before the break. They built the advantage back to 10 eight minutes into the second half.
That's when the home team began chipping away at its deficit. During the next seven minutes, it outscored Iowa by 15 points. The Terrapins led for the game's final seven minutes.
Maryland, the Big Ten's top defensive team, locked up the Hawkeyes late. They scored just six points in the final 8:42. They netted a mere 29 after the intermission.
When Iowa cooled off on offense, the Terrapins heated up. They averaged 1.6 points per possession in the second half.
Maryland point guard Jahmir Young, who hit the game-winning shot at Iowa on Jan. 24, led all scorers with 21 points Wednesday. He knocked down all 13 of his free throw attempts.
Payton Sandfort led Iowa with 19, while Ben Krikke added 11 for the visitors. Leading scorer Tony Perkins grabbed a team-high eight rebounds but shot just 3 of 13 from the floor in netting nine.
The Hawkeyes dropped to 14-11 overall and 6-8 in conference play. Maryland improved to 14-11 and 6-8 with its first-ever, two-game, regular-season sweep of Iowa.
Wisconsin is next up for the Hawkeyes. The Badgers will be at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday (1:15 pm CT, BTN).
