Down by seven with 44 seconds left in double overtime, No. 7 Maryland women’s basketball had seemingly suffered its first loss of the season.

As Minnesota inbounded the ball, Kyndal Walker — who had played just two minutes — got a steal. She made and executed an and-one to cut the game to five.

Just seconds later, the Terps did it again. Oluchi Okananwa got the steal and forced an and-one to cap off an improbable 8-0 run in nine seconds, cutting the deficit to one.

But there was still work to do. Maryland got a stop on another Minnesota turnover and relied on its best scorer on Sunday.

Saylor Poffenbarger knocked down a game-winning layup to propel Maryland to an improbable, 100-99, double-overtime win over Minnesota.

In the first overtime period, the Terps made a similar improbable comeback. Down by five with 18 seconds left in overtime, forward Yarden Garzon chucked up a shot that nobody thought would go in. She hit it. Then Minnesota guard Tori McKinney stepped out of bounds, giving the Terps a chance.

The ball went right back to Garzon’s hands. She drove in and tied the game with a layup.

Sunday forced the Terps to come back constantly — they never had a comfortable lead. But other circumstances made the Terps’ trip to Minnesota much more difficult.

“We had a lot of adversity,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “When you talk about the foul trouble, we’ve had less time to prepare ourselves with [Smikle] going out in two days to prepare to a new lineup, but just some impactful minutes.”

Kaylene Smikle opted to end her year and undergo season-ending knee surgery, she announced on Sunday. She is the third Terp to suffer a season-ending injury — others had to step up.

Early on, Maryland looked worse than it had all season — seeming severely undermanned against a conference opponent. In the midst of injuries, Poffenbarger answered the call.

The redshirt senior had a career-high 30 points and was Maryland’s motor in its second-half comeback, hitting the game-winner in double overtime.

“Maryland has a standard,” Poffenbarger said. “When you come to Maryland, you know the things that come with it.”

Maryland didn’t have a single free-throw attempt in the first half. After a relatively uncompetitive start to the season, the Terps had a rude awakening on the road. They clearly missed the presence of Smikle, and it took a while for them to string together some offense.

Grace Grocholski was a huge factor for Minnesota, notching 31 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The Terps’ defense had no answer for her, and she killed them from deep, going 9-of-12 from 3-point range. She appeared to put the Terps away with a sensational fadeaway 3-pointer in double overtime as the shot clock expired.

The Terps were in severe foul trouble through most of the game, especially with Okananwa, who picked up her fourth midway through the fourth quarter. She never fouled out, though, and survived the entire game with 25 points and eight rebounds.

Isimenme Ozzy-Momodu did foul out but was an anchor defensively before that. She forced Minnesota into taking tough shots and added three steals, two blocks and eight rebounds. She proved her reliability in difficult situations.

The Terps stayed relentless and found a way to stay undefeated despite facing adversity for the first time all season.

“The fight, the resiliency to never give up when you talk about that run, the 9-0 run there late with about eight seconds to be able to get into,” Frese said. “It felt like March. That’s what you’re going to see in the best conference in the country, that you’re going to have those battles every single night.”

1. Garzon came through when needed. Garzon had a rough showing early on, but she flashed signs of who she truly is when it mattered most. She shot 5-of-13 from the field and 3-of-6 from deep, scoring 15 points with nine assists and seven rebounds. But throughout all of her struggles through the season, she needed to find a moment to give her confidence — she did that when she scored five points in three seconds.

2. Early struggles. Maryland had a rough first quarter, starting 5-of-5 from the field before shooting 1-of-11 to end the quarter. This poor shooting persisted throughout the first half, as the Terps scored a season-low nine points in the second quarter.

“Uncharacteristic second quarter for us,“ Frese said. But just love the fact that it was a 50 minute game, and it was going to take each and every one of us.”

3. Mack made the most of her homecoming. Addi Mack grew up 15 minutes away from Williams Arena, and her homecoming was exactly what Maryland needed in the third quarter. Mack scored 16 points and was a driving force in bringing the Terps all the way back in the frame.

“I know that I’ve looked at this game on the calendar for a long time, ever since we had the schedule out, but it’s a great environment to play in,” Mack said. “I had a lot of people here that I knew, so just to be able to play such an exciting game and obviously come out with the win was really fun.”

Maryland men’s basketball looked lost Saturday. On the road in their Big Ten opener, the Terps found themselves already down 14 at the half.

Something needed to change. But nothing did. Maryland was pummelled, 83-64, in its conference opener.

Problems that have plagued the Terps all season long only continued into the second half, as the Hawkeyes stormed out to a 12-2 run over the first four and a half minutes. Nothing encapsulated Maryland’s repeated mistakes more than a lazy pass from Myles Rice to Pharrel Payne with 15:39 remaining as the Terps crossed halfcourt — just one of the Terps’ 18 turnovers.

The ball was snatched by Cam Manyawu, who flew the other way for an emphatic slam — and it all but slammed the door shut on Maryland’s hopes of storming back.

One thing was evident through the first five minutes of play: Bennett Stirtz is rightfully in the conversation to be an NBA Draft lottery pick. Solomon Washington, Maryland’s best defender, was tasked with guarding the crafty scorer. But Stirtz still sank two heavily-contested jumpers early.

Like the Hawkeyes, Maryland relied on its star scorer — Payne — to kickstart its offense. After scoring a career-high 30 points in the last contest against Wagner, Payne notched six points in the opening six minutes — four of those points came from free throws.

A 12-0 Iowa run highlighted some of the many issues that have plagued Maryland so far this season against staunch competition. The Hawkeyes found success in running the court against the Terps’ slow-to-adjust defense. Rapid ball movement left corner shooters open, and Iowa was a perfect 5-of-5 from downtown in the first 10 minutes.

Turnovers didn’t help Maryland, either — it had four in the first 10 minutes, but almost all of them led to fast break opportunities. Not known to be an exceptionally high-flying offense, one might have thought Iowa transformed into Houston’s Phi Slama Jama of the early 1980s with some of its rim-running antics.

High pick-and-roll screens for the always-moving Stirtz also gave Maryland fits. The senior guard piled on 11 points on 3-of-3 shooting from deep range in the first 12 minutes. The Terps often failed to fight over these screens, giving Stirtz extra room to release his shots — and he doesn’t need much room at all.

Maryland’s initiative to shoot free throws continued after taking a staggering 45 against Wagner. In the first half, the Terps shot 13 free throws to Iowa’s seven, further highlighting head coach Buzz Williams’ paint-oriented offensive strategy.

The first period ended with Maryland failing to score a point in the final three minutes — and Iowa the final two. The Hawkeyes led 44-30 after 20 minutes.

To start the second half, Guillermo Del Pino ran point guard, while Myles Rice and Darius Adams sat on the bench. But things didn’t change for the struggling Terps.

The outside shot wasn’t quite falling as it had in the first half for the Hawkeyes, but it didn’t matter. Ten of Iowa’s first 12 points in the frame came in the paint, and Maryland’s bigs offered little resistance.

Meanwhile, the Terps went on a stretch without hitting a field goal for over four minutes — Andre Mills hit the shots on both ends of the drought.

One thing stood out clearly: Iowa’s off-ball movement far exceeded the speed with which Maryland’s defense could operate. Lane cutters and off-ball screens picked apart the Terps’ interior.

Meanwhile, Maryland’s continuously stagnant offense, featuring low-post feeds and catch-and-shoot threes, only aided the Hawkeyes’ defense. The lack of movement made the Terps’ choreographed passes easily diagnosed — it led to six bad turnovers in the half’s first 10 minutes.

Down the stretch, the game slowed to a snail’s pace on both ends, though it was Maryland that benefited with a bevy of free throws. In fact, Payne shot a ridiculous 18 free throws on the game, and was too imposing for Iowa’s bigs. He feasted with seven offensive rebounds, leading to second-chance hacks. Alvaro Folgueiras fouled out with six minutes left, and three more Hawkeyes had at least four fouls.

But Payne’s 9-of-18 at the line represented Maryland’s shortcomings Saturday, as it could never truly find its footing in the defeat.

1. Early 3-point disparity. Iowa’s ability to separate from the Terps early came largely from its ability to consistently hit 3-pointers. In the first half, the Hawkeyes went 8-of-13 from downtown — those eight were more than the six the Terps made all game. Stirtz led Iowa with four triples.

2. Free throw problems. The Terps shot 38 free throws Saturday but made just 24. Darius Adams had a nice stretch in the second half, slashing to the basket and earning some trips to the charity stripe. But issues from the line affected him, as it did the whole team — he went 6-of-10 from the line.

If Maryland wants free throw shooting and an aggressive driving offense to be its identity, then missing that many shots from the stripe won’t fly.

3. Cleaning up to do. Iowa had a staggering 12 steals and 21 points off turnovers Saturday. If the Terps simply minimized its sloppy play even just a little, the game could have been far more competitive.

Cleaning up ball handling and passing problems is something that is easier said than done, but it should be Williams’ primary focus at this point in the season.