By Dallas Jones

IOWA CITY, IOWA – The Iowa Hawkeyes played their second game of their three games home stand Sunday afternoon against the Maryland Terrapins.

Riding a three games conference win streak, Iowa has turned what was looking to be a gauntlet of games into some of their best games of the season.

The Hawkeye extended that win streak to four with a 81-67 victory. The game has some peaks and valleys, here are my takeaways:

Iowa veteran guards stepped up: The front court play of this year’s Iowa Hawkeyes team has been stellar.

On the other hand, the Hawkeye have been waiting for things to fall into place for guards Tony Perkins and Ahron Ulis. Both guards have played great defensively, but scoring the ball has been a slippery slow at times.

Sunday showed that when they are on, a whole new level for this team is reached. From the tip-off, you could see how motivated the backcourt duo was, attacking the basket in transition and knocking down open shots when they came their way.

Ulis filled up the stat sheet in the first half with seven points (3-6 FG, 1-1 3FG), three rebounds and three assists. Perkins had his best half of the season, putting up 15 points on 7-9 shooting in 17 minutes of play.

Tony Perkins did not slow down in the second half and finished the night with a career high 22 points on 10-13 shooting.

Cue the head taps 😤pic.twitter.com/Li0MN3Dojq

— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) January 15, 2023

All guard lineup creates surge: Foul trouble led to some interesting lineups and combinations on Thursday night against Michigan. On Sunday, both Filip Rebraca and Kris Murray tallied two fouls in the first half.

This caused Iowa to play small and fast, a style that the Hawkeyes are no stranger to. After putting up just 19 points through the first 13 minutes of play, Iowa scored 24 points in seven minutes.

A lot of those coming in a lineup of Ahron Ulis, Josh Dix, Dasonte Bowen, Tony Perkins and Connor McCaffery. Not often will you see lineups full of guys under 6’6” turn the tide of a game, but the tenacity and flow of the lineup was exactly what the Hawkeyes needed.

In the second half, we saw more of the small more of these smaller lineups. Freshman Josh Dix continues to earn more playing time, as we saw him in a lineup with Ahron Ulis, Tony Perkins, Filip Rebraca and Kris Murray.

This lineup allowed Murray the space inside to attack the small lineup of Maryland.

The top two players in terms of plus/minus today, Tony Perkins and Connor McCaffery, both at +14 when they were on the court.

Fran McCaffery has not hesitated to reach deep into his bag to switch lineups up and when they respond the way this team has all year, expect more in the future.

Don’t let up: Iowa got off to a hot start Sunday afternoon and saw themselves with a double digit lead well into the first half. A great sign for the Hawks as they have had multiple occasions lately that were quite the opposite.

Clawing back from deficits had become more of a norm than holding large leads.

We saw that on display as they went into the half with a ten point lead, but gave up an 8-0 run immediately out of the locker room to start the second half.

Credit some of this to foul trouble, but the Hawkeyes did respond and after Maryland cut the lead to two points, Iowa responded with a 12-3 run of its own.

Basketball is a game of runs and in this league you have to find multiple ways to win. A lesson Iowa can take away from this game.

Kris Murray doesn’t let foul trouble keep him down: After playing 45 minutes on Thursday, I am sure Kris Murray was ready for some time off, but maybe not during the game.

With over ten minutes left in the half, Murray had earned two fouls and a spot on the bench.

He tallied only two points and two rebounds in the first half. The Hawkeyes still held the lead by double digits despite this. Some players may just coast to the finish line, but after a Maryland spurt made things interesting, Murray got to business as usual.

He put up 17 second half points on 7-11 from the field. Great players are often defined by what they do in “winning time” and that is exactly what Murray did tonight.

Since returning from injury, Murray has put the league on notice and continued his early season dominance. He is averaging 23.6 ppg in his last six conference games.

Next up, the finale of this three game homestand as they take on Northwestern at 8pm Wednesday night.

Check out comments from both team’s Head Coaches and Iowa players here: