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By JAMES ALLAN
hawkeyesports.com
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The inside-outside freshmen duo of Tyler Cook and Jordan Bohannon led the University of Iowa men’s basketball team to an 83-69 road triumph over 24th-ranked Maryland on Saturday at the XFINITY Center.
Cook provided the Hawkeyes with a presence in the post, tallying his first career double-double. He finished with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting and grabbed a career-best 10 rebounds.
Bohannon was lights out from distance. He made 8-of-9 3-point field goals — the most by a freshman in school history and one shy of Chris Kingsbury’s school record — to finish with a game-high 24 points. He also had five assists in 31 minutes.
Iowa made 16 3-pointers (in 26 attempts) — the most in a Big Ten game in school history and the second-most of the season — shooting a season-best 61.5 percent. The Hawkeyes shot 48.4 percent from the field for the game, won the rebounding battle, 38-33, and made the Terrapins pay for their mistakes to the tune of 22 points off 14 turnovers.
“I don’t know if you ever see 16 makes coming,” said UI head coach Fran McCaffery. “But we have a lot of good shooters. Teams have been locking in on Pete (Jok) and when you do that, others have opportunities to make shots and step up.
“We were connected offensively in terms of sharing the ball and moving it.”
Along with Bohannon, three other Hawkeyes made at least two 3-pointers. Senior Peter Jok and sophomore Nicholas Baer each made three 3-pointers en route to 11 points apiece, and sophomore Brady Ellingson made a pair of triples.
The Hawkeyes assisted on 17 of their 30 field goals and when the team missed, it went back and cleaned up the glass. Fifteen of Iowa’s 38 rebounds were on the offensive glass and the Hawkeyes scored 30 second-chance points in the game.
Iowa was hot early, making six of its first eight 3-point attempts, but the lead was just 28-27 with 7:59 left in the first half. The Hawkeyes began widening the gap in the latter stages courtesy of 3-pointers from Jok and Bohannon, and a three-point play from Cook made the score 41-32.
The Hawkeyes led 47-40 at the half after shooting 51.5 percent and making 8-of-12 3-pointers. Cook had 15 points in the first half.
The 3s kept falling in the second half. Bohannon crossed over a Terrapin defender and made a 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to give Iowa a 50-43 lead. He made two more in a 1:20 stretch with an assist on an Isaiah Moss layup sandwiched in between to push Iowa’s advantage to 58-44.
Iowa’s lead never fell below 13 points and the Hawkeyes advantage was by as many as 22, coming on a Baer 3-pointer with 3:49 to play.
The Hawkeyes’ zone defense slowed down Maryland’s pick-and-roll attack throughout the contest. The Terrapins made 11 3-pointers, but attempted 34 from beyond the arc. Maryland shot 44.8 percent for the game.
“The zone does a lot of things,” said McCaffery. “It limits times you have to guard their ball screens with their quickness they have. The zone keeps everyone in front of you and one of the concerns is rebounding, but we did a good job there (tonight).”
Kevin Huerter led the Terrapins with 13 points, one of three players in double figures.
Iowa (16-13, 8-8) returns to action March 2, facing No. 15 Wisconsin in Madison.
