Women's basketball: Takeaways: Big Ten conference tournament semifinals

Iowa looks to end Maryland’s reign of terror in the Big 10 tournament.

INDIANAPOLIS — It was a weird and wild Big Ten regular season that resulted in the 11-seed and the 5-seed in the conference tournament being separated by just two games. Things followed suit in the tournament with the 9, 10 and 11 seeds all winning games over higher seeds.

Ultimately, however, the best teams proved to be just that, as #1 Maryland and #2 Iowa emerged and will meet for the Big Ten title.

#2 Iowa 72, #3 Rutgers 67

“We’re pretty happy right now,” said Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder following her team’s win. “You know, I consider the Big Ten one of the toughest conferences in America. There’s (sic)14 teams. We’re down to the final two. It’s pretty exciting for us to be playing the championship.”

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Iowa looked dominant for much of the game but the high-pressure defense of Rutgers almost proved to be too much as the Scarlet Knights rallied from down 20 to pull within three with two minutes left to go.

Despite giving up the big lead, the team was steadied by the force that is Megan Gustafson, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds for her 29th double-double of the season, while Hannah Stewart and Makenzie Meyer had 14 and 13 points, respectively.

“Rutgers is a gritty team and we knew they were going to go on some runs,” said Stewart. “I think some of that was accredited to our turnovers and maybe being a little too lax when we had that 20-point lead, but I don’t think there was ever a doubt in any of our heads that we weren’t going to win that game.”

The Hawkeyes reach their first Big Ten tournament championship since 2014 when they lost to Nebraska. They’ve won the tournament twice (1997 and 2001).

#1 Maryland 73, #4 Michigan 72

It was the 1,000th win in program history and Maryland had to really earn it. After leading much of the second half, the Terps had to overcome a one-point deficit twice in final 1:09 and held firm defensively when Michigan had the chance to win with the ball on the baseline with 1.9 seconds left.

“You know, obviously just a tremendous game by both teams. No team deserved to lose this game. But proud of our finish,” said Maryland head coach Brenda Frese. “Came down to being able to make one more play and one more stop on the defensive end, something that we’ve been building for and have put ourselves in a lot of great situations to have great confidence to be able to finish it out. Just really proud of our resiliency there to stay the course.”

Kalia Charles continued her stellar season with 22 points, while Blair Watson, Stephanie Jones, and Channise Lewis all scored in double digits as well.

The Terps will appear in the Big Ten tournament championship for the fifth time in as many tries, and will look to become the first team ever to win the title four times in five years. Michigan, meanwhile, falls to 0-4 all-time in Big Ten tournament semifinals.

Maryland will now be tasked with taking down the Hawkeyes, the only team they have failed to defeat this season. Iowa won the lone matchup between the at home 86-73.

“We have not looked ahead to Maryland or anything like that. You know, we beat them by 13 on our home court, but it was a close game,” said Bluder after Iowa’s win over Rutgers. “It was three points with two and a half to go, so we know it’s going to be a battle.”

As for her team, Frese has no concerns that her team will be ready to go come tipoff.

“I think if you don’t have players that are motivated for tomorrow, you probably have the wrong team,” she said. “This team is highly motivated and excited for the opportunity that we have that’s ahead of us… But it won’t be hard to motivate our team to be ready to play.”

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