By Jake Mosbach
INDIANAPOLIS – The Iowa women’s basketball team’s run for the Big Ten Tournament championship is over.
The ninth-seeded Hawkeyes fell to tournament top seed Maryland March 4 at Bankers Life Field House, 75-55. The loss sets the Hawkeyes’ record at 19-13 before they find out their next destination, the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.
After jumping on the Terrapins early, Iowa held a surprising 28-18 lead at the end of the first quarter. Then, however, the game turned sour for the Hawks. The second quarter featured a burst of 21 points for Maryland and a non-burst of just 4 for Iowa.
“I was proud of the way we came out. We had good intensity and pressure,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said after the game. “But obviously, it takes four quarters, and after that, we pretty much lost it.”
Hawkeye freshman guard Tania Davis, who totaled 4 points to go with 2 rebounds and 2 assists, said that carelessness with the ball doomed the team March 4.
“We just stopped moving the ball and stopped taking care of the ball [in the second quarter],” she said. “There were too many turnovers on our end, just us trying to force things.”
The 22 Hawkeye turnovers did nothing to help March 4 against a Maryland defense that came in giving up only 60.6 points per game.
Sophomore forward Chase Coley was still searching for answers in the minutes after the game. The Minneapolis native managed 4 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists against the Terrapins.
“We came in really energized and tried to catch them off guard,” Coley said. “We played really well in the first quarter…I don’t know what happened. It just kind of went down hill from there.”
The Hawkeyes, who have prided themselves on their usually dominant rebounding margin throughout the season, had nothing for Maryland in the paint.
The Terps outrebounded Iowa 42-25 and poured in 50 points in the paint. It didn’t help that both of the Hawks’ starting forwards, Chase Coley and Megan Gustafson, fell into foul trouble late in the game; Gustafson ended up fouling out with 7 points and 5 rebounds.
“They started to post up a little bit more and tried to switch things up,” Iowa guard Ally Disterhoft said about Maryland’s inside production. “When we were playing them tight on the perimeter, they worked to get it inside.”
Disterhoft ended the game with 16 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.
At the half, Maryland’s lead was 39-32. And by the end of the third quarter the Hawkeyes were still hanging around, managing to hold Maryland’s lead to 10. But another low-scoring effort in the fourth quarter, just 8 Iowa points, ended any chance of a comeback.
Other scorers for Iowa included Whitney Jennings (11 points), Kali Peschel (10), and Alexa Kastanek (3).
Now, as the the Hawks await their fate in the postseason, Davis said all they can do right now is wait.
“We’re going to watch the selection show together, and if we get in [to the NCAA Tournament] that’s great,” she said. “But if we don’t, our plan is to win the NIT. That’s our mindset right now.”
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