COLLEGE PARK, Md — Fresh off of a comfortable win at Nebraska, No. 25 Maryland men’s basketball looked surprisingly out of sorts against Iowa midway through Sunday night’s matchup. A sloppy opening stretch put the Terps in a four-point hole by halftime, but that quickly changed.
A Hawkeyes missed triple let anticipation grow as Maryland’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie walked the ball up with 14 minutes left. Moving slowly, Gillespie caught Iowa off-guard by nailing a straightaway, near-logo three to put the Terps up 13. That make forced a Hawkeye timeout, and sent the Xfinity Center into a frenzy.
Gillespie’s sequence was part of a game-changing, 11-0 run that helped Maryland maintain a double-digit advantage for the game’s remainder. The Terps only allowed 24 second-half points, cruising in the second half to a 101-75 win over Iowa (14-11, 5-9 Big Ten).
“I loved our defense,” head coach Kevin Willard said. “With the way we switched out in the second half our whole defense was much better.”
Maryland (20-6, 10-5 Big Ten) scored its most-ever points in a Big Ten game and won its 13th consecutive home contest with an early second half scoring outburst. The Terps outscored Iowa 23-4 out of halftime, with junior guard Rodney Rice making three consecutive shots during the game’s final lead change.
Along with Rice’s 18 total points, the Terps were paced by a game-high 26 points from Gillespie. Freshman center Derik Queen and senior forward Julian Reese both posted double doubles, while fifth year guard Selton Miguel added 17 points.
Maryland is 5-0 this season when all five starters are in double figures.
“We all score a lot of points in our starting five so they can’t double team or overhelp,” Gillespie said. “So I feel like we help each other out.”
Iowa, the Big Ten’s second-best three-point shooting team, looked like its offensive self early. The Hawkeyes went 8-for-14 from deep in the first half, but a defensive change by Maryland to play a high zone defense in the next frame proved effective.
The Hawkeyes missed all 13 of their attempts from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes, playing a whole half without making a triple for the first time in Big Ten play this year.
But between Iowa’s early shooting success and 11 Terp turnovers, Maryland entered the break playing from behind. It trailed at halftime, 51-47, the most points allowed in a first half this season and the most combined points in any Big Ten contest this year.
“I told [them] at halftime that we’re only down four, [but] we should be down 20,” Willard said. “We tried to get in a zone and mix them up a bit, but I actually felt really good that we were only down four.”
The Terps began the game red-hot from distance, tying a season-high by finding bottom on each of their first seven shots. The quick start was highlighted by three triples from Selton Miguel — his third of which came on a crafty stepback shot.
Miguel shined early while Iowa was nearly just as efficient from the field. The two teams combined for 11-for-12 from the field to start.
But Iowa pieced together an 8-0 run by the under 12 timeout. It led for the final seven minutes before halftime after scoring seven more straight points minutes later.
Meanwhile, Maryland struggled to hoist up enough shots to retake its lead. The Terps matched Iowa with a 57 percent first-half field goal rate, but entered the break having committed 11 of an eventual season-high 15 turnovers.
“We watched film [of the turnovers] at halftime,” Willard said, “When you’ve [been] traveling, sometimes you need to give college kids the benefit of the doubt that they’ll figure it out.”
Maryland continues its Xfinity Center homestand next Thursday against USC (14-11, 6-8 Big Ten). Oliver Schaack and Dash Tischler will have the WMUC Sports call at 8:30 p.m.
