The Iowa men’s basketball team made impactful statements both on and off the floor on Thursday night.

Prior to tipoff of the team’s 89-67 road win over Maryland, the Hawkeyes joined the Terrapins in kneeling after violence at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Pro-Trump rioters broke into the Capitol Complex, forcing the evacuation of the House and Senate, in an attempt to stop the election result certification. One woman died after a Capitol Police officer shot her, according to the New York Times and three other people died of unrelated medical emergencies.

“[Terrapin senior] Darryl Morsell reached out to me before the game and just asked if we’d be willing to kneel before the tipoff,” Hawkeye point guard Jordan Bohannon said postgame. “I talked to my guys, and a lot of us were OK with doing that. So, that’s what we ended up doing. I thought that was really important and really powerful knowing that [the University of Maryland] is really close to the nation’s capitol.”

We join united tonight with Iowa against injustices in our society.

We will continue to use our voices and platform in order to take steps to improve our country. pic.twitter.com/pr4tCbjqXV

— Maryland Basketball 🐢 (@TerrapinHoops) January 8, 2021

Following the pregame display and the game itself, Hawkeye head coach Fran McCaffery used the postgame podium to describe what Iowa’s trip to Maryland Wednesday was like. The basketball team arrived Wednesday, and wasn’t near the capitol as events unfolded.

“It was reprehensible,” McCaffery said. “I mean, I could go on. It’s just really, really heartbreaking. We landed in Maryland. We haven’t been in [Washington D.C.]. You know, it was a business trip. There was a police car at our hotel, and we just said, ‘Stay in, stay safe,’ because we didn’t really know what happened.

“I thought it was great that the players decided to kneel at the jump ball and the teams on the sideline knelt too, right at the jump ball. After a while, you get tired of kneeling, you get tired of talking about it. What happened yesterday just can’t happen in our country. I think one of the things we always talk about is, ‘At least we have conversation,’ but conversation has to turn into action. Fortunately, more and more people are recognizing the changes that have to take place. We all wish it would take place quicker, but it’s going to take place. It’s going to happen because decent people want it to happen.”

For Washington, D.C., native Luka Garza, the Jan. 6 violence at the U.S. Capitol was especially difficult to process, and even prevented him from seeing members of his family ahead of the Hawkeyes’ road date with the Terrapins Thursday.

“It was definitely disturbing and upsetting to see that happen in the city I’m from,” Garza said. “I have friends and family who were protesting all summer that were hit with rubber bullets, tear gassed, a whole bunch of stuff, and people got hurt. I know people that got hurt. I know people that got arrested. So, it’s obviously frustrating to see that. I’m proud of everybody that played today. We’re blessed to be able to have the game of basketball. For me, I had one goal coming here, and that was to win a basketball game.

“Obviously that was upsetting to see for anybody, much less me being from this area,” Garza said. “I’m glad we got the win. Obviously I’m disturbed that that happened. There were so many negative effects. I was going to go see my family last night, and because of everything that happened, there were curfews in my area, and my family couldn’t even leave. So, I wasn’t able to see my mother, and that’s obviously not the main focus, everything that happened is obviously way worse than that. There were a lot of negative things from that, but I put it behind me and knew the main focus here. It was my third trip here, and I wanted to leave successful.”

Despite all the uncertainty and outside noise, Garza and the Hawkeyes did accomplish the mission they’d set upon departure from Iowa City – defeat Maryland on the road for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

The Hawkeyes’ win over the Terrapins at the Xfinity Center wasn’t entirely flawless. Early on, Iowa actually trailed Maryland by as much as 10 points, causing McCaffery to spend two timeouts less than six minutes into the game.

“I thought we were a little casual,” McCaffery said. “We did have some good looks early that didn’t go, but I thought our defense was casual. If your shots aren’t going, that’s fine, unless you’re taking bad shots. I thought we took good shots, and they didn’t go in. [Wieskamp] had a wide-open three. He makes it seven out of ten times when he’s open like that, and he didn’t make it. ‘OK, let’s go back and guard people.’ We didn’t do that. That is the recipe for timeout, get on them. Timeout again, ‘OK, we’re making some changes.’ I didn’t scream and yell and ridicule, it was just, ‘We need better,’ and we got better. Then, we got better again.”

After McCaffery’s second timeout, Iowa pieced together a 20-0 run to go up 29-19. The Hawkeyes would eventually finish the half up 44-26 – ending their run following timeout No. 2 at 35-7.

“When we got to that timeout, our bench just had so much energy, and they brought it to the timeout,” Garza said. “Coach was on us, but we just had a lot of positive energy. We had a lot of guys that didn’t get to play like [junior] Austin Ash, [guard] Nico Hobbs, [forward] Michael Baer, and [freshman] Josh Ogundele, and you couldn’t hear nothing but them on the defensive end. They were helping us out, calling out things. That gave us some momentum. Credit to the guys that came in [the game], Patrick [McCaffery], Keegan [Murray], Joe [Toussaint], they were just able to corral, and be great, and get steals, and run. When we’re able to get stops and go and run, that’s when we’re at out best. Our run game is hard to guard.”

“Credit to Maryland, they came out and were really moving the ball,” Garza said. “They had a lot of energy to start the game. They had a good gameplan . . . I’m glad our team was able to bounce back and make a run of our own.”

Garza finished the game with 24 points and seven rebounds. Murray, Patrick McCaffery, and Bohannon also scored in double figures before the final buzzer sounded Thursday night.

The Hawkeyes’ next game will give them an opportunity to avenge their Christmas Day loss as they welcome Minnesota to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and the game will air on the Big Ten Network.