Jahmir Young Lifts Maryland Over Iowa
Maryland’s Jahmir Young did what he wanted in the second half against Iowa on Tuesday night.
And that, Hawkeyes' coach Fran McCaffery said, was the problem.
Young’s layup with two seconds left gave the Terrapins a 69-67 win over the reeling Hawkeyes, who were smarting after their second consecutive home loss.
Iowa fell to 11-8 overall and 3-5 in the Big Ten, and while it’s still late January and it seems like there’s still time, a hole is being dug and the Hawkeyes know they have to get out of it soon.
“We’ve just got to stay together,” said guard Payton Sandfort, whose 3-point attempt from half-court at the buzzer fell painfully short. “We’ve done a great job. Obviously today was disappointing, Saturday was disappointing (an 84-70 loss to Purdue). We’ve just got to stick together.”
Young, who averages almost 21 points per game, scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. He had Maryland’s last eight points — a 3-pointer with 1:24 left that gave the Terrapins a 65-64 lead, a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left for a 67-65 lead, and then the game-winner.
“That’s what he does, to his credit,” McCaffery said. “We have to do a better job there. That was disappointing, because you know he’s ‘the guy.’ And we let him kind of dictate down the stretch.”
“He hit some tough shots,” Sandfort said. “We let him get to what he wants to do. We get what we deserve.”
Sandfort was disappointed in how he handled the switch to defending Young on his final shot, letting him get to his left and drive to the basket.
“It was just a bad play,” Sandfort said. “I’m disappointed in myself, for sure.”
“It was a go-screen. It was a great read by Payton to switch,” McCaffery said. “He just needed to jump out to his left hand more, obviously.”
The loss, McCaffery said, was more on the Hawkeyes’ second-half foul trouble. Iowa committed 12 fouls in the half, but Maryland (12-8, 4-5) was in the bonus nine minutes into the half.
Owen Freeman, Iowa’s best interior scoring option in this game with 14 points, fouled out with 3:07 to play and the Hawkeyes up 63-59. Iowa would score just four points after that.
“Owen is really good,” McCaffery said. “We’ve got to get him to the point where he can use his body, and not get into foul trouble. We need him out there.”
The Terrapins’ defense also bedeviled the Hawkeyes. Iowa’s offense never seemed in tune throughout the game, but it especially showed in the closing minutes. The Hawkeyes’ last field goal came on a Sandfort jumper with 5:44 to play.
“Honestly, I would say the movement — we start getting stagnant,” guard Tony Perkins said of the Hawkeyes’ scoring woes. “The beginning of the game, we get moving. We get great movement, ball reversal, everything. When we get down to crunch time, we stay still. That’s our struggle — we’ve got to move it.”
Iowa was also just 3-of-14 in 3-pointers.
“I had four good looks,” Sandfort said. “They all looked good, (hit) the back rim.”
“Good shots,” said Perkins, who led the Hawkeyes with 20 points. “Sometimes they go, sometimes they don’t.”
The Hawkeyes led for all but 1:07 of the first half. Their biggest lead was 10 points, but McCaffery felt like his team could have gotten better command of the game early.
“ We had a chance to get a lead in the first half — we had a lead, but it wasn’t much,” he said.
