Disastrous first quarter dooms Iowa women’s basketball in loss to Maryland

The Hawkeyes could not recover from a 41-point first quarter from Maryland.

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Hannah Kinson

Iowa center Sharon Goodman and forward Shateah Wetering stand together during a timeout for a women’s basketball game against Purdue on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 at Carver Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes defeated the Boilermakers 87-81.

Chloe Peterson, Sports Reporter


When the No. 1 and No. 2 scoring teams in the nation meet, a high-scoring affair is to be expected, and Tuesday’s game between Iowa women’s basketball and No. 8 Maryland certainly featured a lot of offense.

While the Hawkeyes approached the triple-digit scoring mark in College Park, the Terrapins blew by the 100-point threshold, beating Iowa, 111-93.

The loss moves the Hawkeyes to 12-7 overall and 8-7 in the Big Ten, good for eighth in the league’s standings.

With their win over the Hawkeyes, the Terrapins will maintain their reign atop the Big Ten, improving to 17-2 overall and 13-1 in conference.

Despite suffering an 18-point defeat on the road, the Hawkeyes believe they did get something positive out of their trip to the east coast.

“I think it’s really a big growing point,” junior center Monika Czinano said postgame. “Just kinda knowing what these teams play like, and how we have to show up for these games in order to win.”

The Hawkeyes were obliterated in the first quarter, as Maryland dropped 41 points in just 10 minutes of action compared to Iowa’s 21-point performance in the opening period.

“It was a disastrous first quarter for us,” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “Obviously, when you let up that many open threes, we had transition issues, and open threes. [Maryland] gained a lot of momentum from that.”

After a rocky start to the game, the Hawkeyes showed signs of life in second period, as they outscored the Terrapins, 30-27, and headed to the locker room at halftime down, 51-68.

Throughout the second half, Iowa held its own. Maryland kicked off the third quarter with a 13-4 run that Iowa proceeded to follow with a 7-0 run of its own.

In the fourth quarter, the Hawkeyes tried to scrape a comeback effort together, outscoring Maryland in the game’s final 10 minutes by two points.

“We outscored them in the last three quarters,” Bluder said. “We beat them by two points. We put 93 points up on the road against Maryland. So, there are some good takeaways.”

The performance of freshman point guard Caitlin Clark proved to be another high point for the Hawkeyes, as she scored 34 points to earn her fifth-straight 30-point game, breaking Iowa women’s basketball’s freshman scoring record in the process.

Clark’s 17th point of the game pushed her past Jaime Printy’s 501-point program record set during the 2009-10 season.

Clark has already put up 519 points with four regular season games remaining.

“I’m not sure if I broke [the scoring record], I haven’t heard that, but if I did, that’s awesome.” Clark said. “But more than anything, I would trade that for this win.”

Iowa only has one day of preparation before its next matchup with a highly-ranked team. The Hawkeyes will welcome No. 12 Michigan to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m., and the game will be aired on the Big Ten Network.