By Mario Williams
INDIANAPOLIS — Win or go home.
That’s the message of the Big Ten Tournament. For the Iowa women’s basketball team, they didn’t want to go home after the quarterfinal match against top-seeded Maryland.
However, the Hawkeyes will be homeward bound following a 75-55 loss to the Terps. While Iowa’s run in the conference tournament is over, Iowa fought hard throughout the contest against a physical Maryland team.
“We came in excited about playing Maryland and the opportunity ahead of us,” freshman Tania Davis said. “We played great defense, good offense, we moved the ball, and took our open shots.”
Prior to the quarterfinal matchup, Iowa defeated Michigan, 97-85, on March 3. After playing a sloppy first quarter against the Wolverines, Iowa pulled it together and played a solid game of basketball for the remainder of the contest.
This time, though, Iowa’s confidence from the win against Michigan transitioned into its first-quarter performance. But the three remaining quarters were Iowa at its worse.
Iowa shot 75 percent from the field in the first quarter and was 4-of-6 from downtown. Junior Ally Disterhoft was perfect from the 3-point line, 2-of-2, and she took no time leading her Hawkeyes in the right direction. The junior finished the quarter with 10 points.
Aside from Iowa leading by 10 points when the first quarter concluded, 28-18, Iowa also out-rebounded the Terps, 28-18.
“It just went downhill from the first quarter,” sophomore Chase Coley said. “The first quarter was the team we are. The last three quarters, we just started falling apart, and it was really frustrating.
“It wasn’t Iowa basketball, and that’s not how we play.”
Maryland hadn’t played a game in five days, and the Hawks were well-adjusted to the atmosphere in Bankers Life Field House. Iowa took advantage of Maryland feeling the jitters, but when the Terps found their rhythm in the second, it shifted the energy of the game.
After the Terrapins trailed by 10 points in the first quarter, they came out in the second limiting Iowa to only 4 points and one field goal. It was Maryland’s best quarter of the game. The team’s zone defense in the second was key into trapping Iowa and making sure nothing went right for the Hawks.
Once Maryland took the lead in the second quarter, Iowa fought to get it back, but the effort was never enough against the No. 5 Terps.
“We just started mixing it up a little bit,” Maryland’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough said. “We tried to make them uncomfortable. We wanted to give them hard looks.”
Maryland did just that for the remainder of the contest, and Iowa was out of sorts for the remaining three quarters.
A team such as Maryland with experience, depth, All-Americans, and players playing in the World University Games calls for destruction on the court. A young team such as Iowa couldn’t handle the Maryland’s pressure.
The Hawkeyes were never really out of the game until the fourth quarter, however. Iowa trailed by as few as 6 points in the fourth quarter, but Maryland’s powerhouse offense took control for the rest of the game. Maryland held Iowa scoreless for four minutes in the fourth.
“I’m happy with the progress that we’ve made,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “But after a loss, nobody is ever happy.”
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