For the Iowa men’s basketball team, crunch time has resulted in chipped teeth rather than the sweet taste of victory. Over the weekend against Purdue, Iowa didn’t make a field goal over the final four minutes. This phenomenon repeated itself again on Wednesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, where the Hawkeyes fell to the Maryland Terrapins, 69-67.
Maryland entered the contest as the Big Ten’s top defense with respect to opponent points per game, and Iowa was held under 70 points for the fourth time this season. Yet heading into the matchup as the conference’s top offense in points per game, the Hawkeyes looked anything but late in the second half, mustering no made field goals in the final 5:44.
During this period, the Hawkeyes committed four turnovers, three fouls, and allowed eight straight points to Terrapin guard Jahmir Young, who would score the game-winning layup with 1.5 seconds remaining. For Iowa’s Tony Perkins, the stretch was also defined by the Hawkeyes deviating from their offensive identity.
“Honestly, I would just say movement, we started to get stagnant,” Perkins said of his team in postgame media availability. “At the beginning of the game we get moving, we have great movement, ball reversals, and everything. But when it gets down to crunch time, we stand still.”
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery explained how Maryland’s defense featured constant switching on screens, which forced his squad to rely on dribble penetration and lateral movement rather than downcourt passing and cutting. For McCaffery, Iowa adapted well at first.
Beginning the final ten minutes of action, Iowa’s Brock Harding and Owen Freeman each knocked down second-chance baskets as the Hawkeyes turned a 50-48 deficit into a two-point advantage. Following another Freeman offensive board, guard Josh Dix nailed a triple from the wing.
Two pairs of free throws later, and Iowa found itself up, forward Payton Sandfort knocked down a jumper and Iowa found itself up seven with less than six minutes to play.
Then, Maryland’s press seemed to crack Iowa’s composure, as it coaxed a bad-pass turnover from Sandfort and a travel from Perkins. Harding would only add to the mistakes, coughing up the ball after getting caught up in a double-team beyond halfcourt.
McCaffery lauded Harding for helping facilitate the offense early in the second half, but admitted it was “disappointing” to see the first-year guard “couldn’t handle the pressure very well” down the stretch.
Including another Sandfort bad-pass turnover, these four giveaways during the final five minutes resulted in six Maryland points. Four of these points derived from the free-throw line, which the Terrapins took advantage of after they gained the double bonus with more than five minutes remaining.
Of the Hawkeyes’ final three whistles, two were directed at Freeman, who fouled out of the contest with 3:07 remaining.
“Owen is really good, [but] we’ve got to get him to the point where he can use his body and not pick up those fouls and get into foul trouble.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Hawkeyes went 0-for-3 from the field over the final 5:44, including two rejected layups from Ben Krikke and an off-target triple from Harding. Iowa shot 3-of-14 from beyond the arc for the game.
Sandfort admitted he had multiple good looks down the stretch, but his shots just found the back of the rim instead.
“Great shots, sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t,” Perkins added.
The only shots that did go in for Iowa came from the charity stripe, as Iowa, more specifically, Perkins, shot 6-for-6 down the stretch to keep the contest a close affair. But perfection from the line only went so far, as Young single-handedly clipped the Hawkeyes’ wings.
Maryland’s offense in the clutch was a one-man show, as Young, the Terrapins’ leading scorer for the season, twice erased Hawkeye leads with three-pointers – one a step-back in the face of multiple defenders with 1:24 remaining, and another a pull-up from the top of the key with 38 seconds to go.
“He hit some tough shots,” Sandfort said of Young, who shot 1-for-6 in the first half. “We let him get to what he likes to do. It’s what we deserve.”
“We have to do a better job there,” McCaffery added. “That was disappointing because you know [Young’s] and guy, and we let him dictate coming down the stretch.”
Young would later provide the coup-de-gras, driving left on a ball screen and diving towards the cup for a layup, putting Maryland ahead for good. Sandfort switched onto Young during the play, but the 6-foot-1, 185-pound senior still slipped by the Hawkeye for two.
“It was a great read by Payton to switch, he just needed to jump out to his left hand a little more, obviously,” McCaffery said.
“Right now I’m disappearing in big moments,” Sandfort said. “I want to be a lot better at that, I’m working hard to get open … Tony had big-time plays down the stretch, and I got to help my brother out.”
Sitting across from his teammate, Perkins patted Sandfort on the back as Sandfort reflected on his struggles. For Sandfort, the gesture wasn’t simply for show, but a genuine desire for unity – a factor that he says will play a large role in the team’s future success.
“We’ve just got to stick together, I’ve been saying that all year,” Sandfort said. “We’ve done a great job. Obviously, today was disappointing, [Purdue] was disappointing … We love one another and we’re going to keep fighting no matter what the result is.”
Up Next
Iowa hits the road for a weekend trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to take on the Michigan Wolverines, who previously defeated the Hawkeyes, 90-80, in Iowa City earlier this season. Since that victory, head coach Juwan Howard’s squad has dropped seven of nine contests, including an 87-76 defeat to McNeese State of the Southland Conference, and most recently, a 32-point drubbing at the hands of Purdue.
Sitting a 7-12 and 14th in the Big Ten, Michigan is headlined by lead scorer Dug McDaniel with 17.4 points per game. Alongside the second-year guard from Washington, D.C., are forwards Olivier Nkamhoua, Tarris Reed Jr., and Will Tschetter, each of whom is shooting at least 50 percent from the floor.
Reed Jr., who led his squad in scoring against the Hawkeyes with 19, is also averaging a block per contest this season. Teammate Terrance Williams II is a threat from downtown, shooting a career-high 43 percent from beyond the arc.
The Wolverines rank fourth in the Big Ten in terms of points per game but dead last when it comes to opponent points per game, one slot below the Hawkeyes. They also rank third in three-point percentage, but dwell at the bottom of the turnover margin category with a minus two differential.
