Hear from Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen after Hawkeyes fall to Maryland
Hear from Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen after Hawkeyes fall to Maryland
IOWA CITY — Every intangible ingredient for another magical evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena swirled in the pregame air. An intense crowd filed in with a daunting foe and celebratory festivities on the agenda. All the night needed was the basketball to match.
Not quite.
Buried in a 25-point hole late in the first half, No. 22 Iowa women’s basketball tried to fire up the engine in time for a riveting rally. Maryland, though, is a seasoned program, capable of handling the noise and then some. The No. 7 Terrapins held off the charging Hawkeyes for a 74-66 win to spoil the night’s ceremony honoring former head coach Lisa Bluder.
In doing so, Maryland (14-0, 4-0 Big Ten Conference) snapped the Hawkeyes’ 21-game Big Ten home winning streak dating back nearly three calendar years. It was also the Terrapins who dinged Iowa (12-3, 2-2) at home last on Feb. 14, 2022, with an 81-69 victory.
“I’ve been trying to tell this group — they don’t really see themselves as two times in the national championship game because six (players) are new — but we’re getting everybody’s best shot,” Hawkeyes coach Jan Jensen said. “This crowd, you want to come in as a visitor and not let the crowd sway you.
“Maryland shot the ball, really, really well. They don’t usually shoot it that well collectively. That was a lot of it.”
Erasing such a hefty deficit requires a run to get the run — and the Hawkeyes achieved the first part with a 12-0 sprint midway through the third quarter. An ominous 24-point hole was back to a somewhat manageable 51-39 deficit, allowing the Hawkeyes to roll with hope from there.
Dreams of a legendary comeback began bubbling as Iowa slid within single digits with five minutes remaining. But this mountain was simply too high to climb. From there, the Hawkeyes trailed by five twice but got no closer.
“We just have to talk about things and figure it out,” Iowa guard Lucy Olsen said. “Obviously some things have to be able to be changed. But they’re a good team. We’ve just got to come out stronger.”
Sydney Affolter, Lucy Olsen on Iowa women’s basketball loss to Maryland
Hear from Sydney Affolter, Lucy Olsen after Iowa women’s basketball falls to Maryland
Pinpointing problems in the first half made for a lengthy list. Maryland carved up Iowa on both ends of the floor while a restless sold-out crowd absorbed what they were seeing. It had been a while since a home half went this way.
The Terrapins’ 3-point action started early before fully kicking into gear early in the second quarter. The Hawkeyes watched Maryland rip off a 22-4 surge over six painful minutes with little resistance. Four Terrapin treys fell during the run while Iowa just mustered one field goal. Iowa’s halftime box score was as unpleasant as it was shocking.
Maryland trotted to the locker room with one fewer 3-pointer (9) than the Hawkeyes had field goals (10), Iowa having owned a first-half lead for all of 24 seconds. A stabilizing stretch from the young Iowa bench to end the first quarter evaporated into a footnote by half’s end.
“We definitely need to have some talks about how we’ve started the past two games,” senior guard Sydney Affolter said. “We can’t have starts like that in the Big Ten. The Big Ten is so good. I thought we did fight until the end. In the second half, we played much better. We outscored them in the second half too. We just have to mimic that and have a full game of basketball.”
Olsen led Iowa with 19 points and got double-digit assistance from Affolter (12). The offensive showings were rough elsewhere. Hannah Stuelke finished 1-for-8 with her only field goal coming late in the fourth quarter, while the starting lineup as a whole finished with 18 turnovers. Strong outputs from Maryland’s KayleneSmikle (26 points), Shyanne Sellers (17) and Bri McDaniel (13) were too much for Iowa to offset.
While Iowa certainly hoped for a better scenario, opportunity still existed for the Hawkeyes to transform Sunday into a productive moment. Iowa simply had too little left to do so.
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.
