One of the more disappointing seasons in Maryland men’s basketball history is officially over.

The Terps squandered an 11-point lead in the first half and could only watch helplessly as Iowa roared back for a 75-64 victory in a Big Ten tournament second-round game Wednesday afternoon at the United Center in Chicago.

The setback mercifully concluded a campaign in which Maryland (12-21) matched a school record for the most losses in a season set originally by the 1940-41 squad that went 1-21. The team also dropped a game by at least 10 points for the 17th time this winter — the most since that 1940-41 group finished with 18 such losses.

The Terps, the No. 17 seed in the tournament, lost for the fifth time in their past six games and went 1-2 against the Hawkeyes this year. They have been bounced from the second round three times in the past five years (2022, 2024 and 2026).

Freshman shooting guard Darius Adams came off the bench to pace Maryland with 13 points, three rebounds and two assists, and graduate student point guard David Coit, the team’s leading scorer at 13.6 points per game, contributed 12 points (all in the second half). Junior shooting guard Isaiah Watts scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range as the Terps’ reserves outscored Iowa’s bench, 28-11.

Redshirt freshman small forward Cooper Koch was one of four Hawkeyes players to reach double digits in scoring with 19 points and three rebounds, and senior shooting guard Bennett Stirtz chipped in 17 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals. Iowa (21-11), the No. 9 seed, ended a three-game skid, avoided a second-round exit for the fourth consecutive year and advanced to Thursday’s third-round game against No. 8 seed Ohio State (20-11).

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s outcome:

Maryland’s offense runs out of gas

For a decent stretch of the first half, the Terps appeared to be in the same rhythm that helped them sprint past No. 16 Oregon, 70-60, in Tuesday’s first round.

After the Hawkeyes took a 10-6 lead, Maryland scored 15 unanswered points in a 2:55 span to enjoy a 21-10 advantage with 8:40 left in the first half. At that point, the offense had shot a blistering 66.7% (8 of 12) from the field, including 60% behind the 3-point line (3 of 5) as Watts nailed back-to-back-to-back long-distance shots.

It was downhill from there. The Terps were outscored 65-43 the rest of the way. Their shooting accuracy dropped precipitously to 35.9% (14 of 39) from the field and 25% (4 of 16) from 3-point range.

The offense tripped over its own feet with costly turnovers (more on that later), which bugged coach Buzz Williams.

“For us offensively, not only do we play with a low turnover rate so the opponent doesn’t have the ball, but we need to play with a low turnover rate in hopes that we can get fouled and in hopes that we can get offensive rebounds, and we just didn’t create enough of that today,” he told the Maryland Sports Radio Network after the game.

Maryland’s bench was so productive because the starters struggled mightily, as none reached 10 points. Redshirt freshman shooting guard Andre Mills, who had averaged 20.3 points in his last nine starts, was limited to nine points on 1-of-13 shooting.

Senior power forward Elijah Saunders, who drained five 3-pointers on Tuesday, made only one for a total of five points. And senior small forward Solomon Washington, who scored 12 points against the Ducks, finished with four while grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds.

Iowa wakes up

As effective as the Terps were early, the Hawkeyes looked as if they were content to sleepwalk through the 11 a.m. local start time.

Iowa missed 11 of its first 15 attempts and seemed in a rush to try to climb out of its early hole by settling for 3-point shots. The team hit just 1 of 6 attempts behind the arc during that opening.

A jumper by junior point guard Kael Combs ended a 3:49 drought and appeared to remind the Hawkeyes that attacking the rim was their best strategy. They finished the half converting 58.3% (7 of 12) of attempts.

Iowa extended its scoring touch to the second half, turning a 34-30 deficit into a 51-34 advantage over a 4:54 span. The team shot 61.5% (16 of 26) overall and 53.8% from 3-point range (7 of 13) for the last frame as Koch delivered 14 points on 4 of 5 3-point attempts and Stirtz added 13 points and six assists.

Maryland falls back into its turnover-prone ways

Less than 18 hours after doing a decent job of protecting the ball, the Terps backslid once again.

Maryland turned the ball over 16 times, the ninth game in which it has surrendered at least 15 giveaways. The Hawkeyes committed 11 turnovers, but they capitalized on the Terps’ mental errors to the tune of a 21-10 advantage in points off of turnovers.

Williams described vying against Iowa as “hard.”

“They’re the best in the Big Ten in conference play at turnover rate, creating turnovers,” he said. “And we’ve had a problem with that throughout the season, particularly when we’ve played them. I think we had 18 turnovers at their place, we had 14 turnovers at our place, and this says we had 16 today. I think some of our issues are compounded when we turn it over because of the points that are generated from those turnovers.”

And even though the Hawkeyes do not boast a terribly big roster, they punished Maryland in the lane. They outscored the Terps, 36-24, in the paint and converted 60% of their shots inside the 3-point arc (18 of 30).

“They are good shooters,” Williams said. “They’re No. 1 in our league at scoring at the rim. So we needed to do a better job protecting the rim.”

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