COLLEGE PARK — DeShawn Harris-Smith scored a career-high 17 points, Julian Reese recorded his 13th double-double of the season, and Maryland stormed back from a 10-point second half deficit to the second-best scoring team in the Big Ten, beating Iowa 78-66 Wednesday night.
“I just felt like everybody on the coaching staff, all my teammates been telling me to be more aggressive in the game, because I feel like in practice, I’m a little more aggressive,” Harris-Smith said. “So I got the ball in my hands, and I’m able to make plays for my teammates, and I haven’t been showing that to y’all and to everybody else that’s watching, so I’ve just been trying to keep that as a reminder.”
The win for Maryland (14-11, 6-8 Big Ten) snaps a three-game losing streak, with the Terrapins having to come back from double-digit deficits in both halves to do so.
“This was a huge win,” said Maryland coach Kevin Willard. “I’ve seen a lot of teams that have been through this that kind of just don’t come out and fight, and these guys showed great hearts. So I think for them it’s really important.”
For the second-straight game, Willard shuffled his starting lineup as 6-foot-11 Frenchman Mady Traore got the nod in back-to-back games, along with first-time starter Jahari Long. Harris-Smith came off the bench again for the Terrapins, as did senior Jordan Geronimo, who missed the previous game at Ohio State with a hand injury and left this one in the first half and did not return with a knee injury.
“I find it comical everybody thinks starting matters. I mean, he played 41 minutes the other night against Ohio State, and he plays 31 minutes tonight,” Willard said of Harris-Smith. “So just because your name doesn’t get called is probably one of the most irrelevant things in basketball.”
Harris-Smith had started every game of his freshman season up until last Saturday’s two-overtime loss at Ohio State, but coming off the bench isn’t new to him. The Woodbridge, Virginia, native noted he had to do so the same in high school at Paul VI, playing with the talented likes of Jeremy Roach, now at Duke, and Dug McDaniel, now at Michigan.
“I had to come off the bench and watch those guys, and they helped me the same way that Ju and Jahmir is helping me right now,” Harris-Smith said. “So coming off the bench does help me. But starting, I mean, either way, doesn’t matter. I’m just gonna come in and try play as hard as I can, just keep stacking games starting with this one.”
Reese scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Young led all scorers with 21, scoring his 500th point in a Maryland uniform while doing so.
Iowa’s Payton Sandfort, the Big Ten’s leading three-point shooter, finished with 19 points, with nearly half (9) coming from beyond the arc. Only six of those points, however came after halftime. Willard credited switching Harris-Smith to matchup with him on defense as the difference.
“[Harris-Smith] really started being physical,” Willard said. “He’s chasing off screens. Sanford had some tough twos in the second half, but I thought he really did a good job of really staying on him, chasing him off. And I thought once they stopped getting easy threes, that just gave us a little bit more confidence.”
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery disagreed, only saying “I’ll be fined” if he answered why Sandfort was hampered in second half, implying he didn’t agree with the officiating. Iowa was whistled for 16 second-half fouls compared to seven in the first, putting Maryland into the double bonus with nearly 5 minutes to go in the game.
Hawkeyes’ Big Ten freshman of the week Owen Freeman, after a 17-point performance just three days ago against Minnesota, managed only 5 against Maryland’s conference-best defense, and the Terrapins shot 48% from the field, eight points above their average, while holding Iowa to 40% shooting, 8 points below theirs.
“When things get tough and one person goes negative, it can easily make the whole team go negative and like kind of a domino effect,” Reese said. “But you know, our leaders were able to step up and say something and just correct all the negative things that was being said, and we were able to turn it around and ultimately get the W.”
Traore got a block in the first two minutes, but Peyton Sandfort started cooking early with back-to-back threes to put Iowa up 8-2 after 5 minutes. Maryland was cold from the floor initially, starting the game 1-of-6.
A Harris-Smith three, along with a dunk and then a steal by Traore that led to a Harris-Smith layup, gave Maryland its first real boost on offense, but the Terrapins still trailed 21-15 with 7 minutes until halftime.
The Big Ten’s second-best scoring offense then started to hit the throttle. Maryland’s usually stout defense left plenty of buffer room for Iowa’s shooters, leading to an 8-0 run and a 26-15 Hawkeyes lead.
That was Maryland’s largest deficit of the half, however. Reese scored all seven of his first-half points in the final 5 minutes as Maryland went to the break down only six, 37-31.
“I think we’ve started off very timid at home for some reason, and we settled for shots,” Willard said. “Watching our offense and throughout the second half, was just reminding them that, you know, we are a little bit more athletic. Let’s take advantage of driving, let’s take advantage of getting the basketball inside.”
Two Maryland fouls in the first minute of the second half, by Reese and Traore, got the Terrapins off on the wrong foot. But Harris-Smith, perhaps playing a bit freer without the pressures of being a starter, scored six of Maryland’s first nine points after halftime to keep pace with the Hawkeyes.
During that time, Traore went down underneath the basket on the defensive end of the floor, grabbing his left knee. He had to be helped off the court and did not return, finishing with a lone dunk and a rebound.
Payton Sandfort didn’t score in the first 7:30 of the second. On the defensive end after his layup, he grabbed a rebound of a short Jaime Kaiser Jr. shot and fed it to Freeman for a fast-break dunk.
It was only Freeman’s third point, but it gave Iowa another double-digit lead, 54-44, amid a nearly 5-minute stretch without a Maryland field goal.
Yet, as desperation set in, Maryland found a gear it’s lacked in key situations all season.
“These guys have been playing so hard all year and giving ourselves chances,” Willard said. “I just kind of reminded them that we’ve been in this situation a lot, and so everybody take a deep breath.”
Four Hawkeye fouls in a 28-second stretch midway through the second half provided an opening. Reese picked up the baton from Harris-Smith and stormed through it, scoring seven points of a barnstorming 15-2 run that launched Maryland to a 65-60 lead — their first since the game’s opening basket.
“I started passing, and we were able to get threes and be able to get guys driving to the basket and close outs,” Reese said. “And doing that I feel like makes the team second guess the double team, and I was able to get deeper catches and be able to finish around the room and clean up those rebounds.”
The Baltimore native scored all of his 9 second-half points in the game’s final 10 minutes, and Young’s perfect 13-of-13 night at the foul line made sure Maryland wouldn’t relinquish the lead. The Terrapins made 6-of-8 from the floor to end the game, compared to Iowa’s 1-of-7 output.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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