Blog from Todd Carton
Once again, the Maryland women’s basketball team exploded in one spurt of almost incomprehensibly good play before resting on their superior talent to cruise past another Big Ten foe opening the second half of the conference season with a 100-81 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in front of an announced crowd of 7,988 at the Xfinity Center in College Park. The Terps improve to 21-1 on the season and are a perfect 9-0 in B1G play where they hold a one game lead over Ohio State.After their 94-49 rout at Illinois Thursday, the Terrapins pushed the pace even harder Sunday and reached the 100 point mark for the first time since their win over Saint Peter’s way back on December 8. The Terps shot 60 percent for the game eclipsing their previous season high that they also registered in the win over Saint Peter’s.
Iowa rallied behind an 8-0 run to tie the game at 30 with 6:57 to play in the second quarter. The Terps answered that with a 10-1 run of their own forcing Iowa coach Lisa Bluder to call a timeout. Although the Hawkeyes scored in the ensuing possession, that basket barely slowed Maryland’s onslaught. Over the final 3:21, the Terps outscored Iowa 16-5 as the half ended with a 30 foot three point shot from just inside the right hash by Slocum that put Maryland’s lead a 56-36 at the break.
The turnover bug bit the Terrapins in the second half when Maryland racked up 12 of their 19 turnovers for the game. The Terps sloppy play allowed Iowa to inch as close as 12 at 75-63 behind a three pointer by Alexa Kastanek. However, Ieshia Small answered with a three point shot of her own that allowed the Hawkeyes to shave just five points off the Terps’ halftime lead.
Two Maryland turnovers and a missed shot starting the fourth quarter led to two more Iowa baskets and narrowed visitors’ deficit to 11 but then the Terps remembered they have Brionna Jones on the team and the senior from Havre de Grace contributed seven points to an 11-0 Maryland run that put the game away. The only remaining question was whether the home team would reach the century mark which they did on a layup by Kiah Gillespie with a minute to play.
Recovering from what was, for her a subpar effort at Illinois where she scored 11 points on three of seven shooting, senior center Brionna Jones led all scorers with 28 points. Jones made 12 of 13 from the field and added four of five from the free throw line. She also grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots.
Jones was one of five Terps to score in double figures. Kaila Charles (10), Destiny Slocum (11) Brianna Fraser (17) and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (18) joined in the scoring parade. Fraser gave Maryland a real lift coming off the bench and her 17 points represent a career high for the 6’3” forward from Brooklyn.
Slocum registered her second double double in the last three games matching her 11 point 11 assist outing against Rutgers a week ago Sunday. The Idaho freshman has now dished 31 assists with only eight turnovers over Maryland’s last three games. Slocum is now averaging 7.4 assists per game in conference play and is tied with Northwestern senior Ashley Deary for tops in the conference. (She’s third in the conference for all games played.)
Maryland faces a pair of road games at Purdue and at Indiana before returning home for a rematch with Illinois on February 9.
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