COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Rebounding from back-to-back road losses in its last two outings, No. 17 Maryland (14-4, 4-3 Big Ten) moved to 11-0 at home Jan. 18 with a 57-50 win over Purdue (10-8, 3-4) at Xfinity Center.

“We needed a win obviously — that’s an understatement,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said after the game. “It’s a great win for us. We did a lot of things great. Probably what we did best coming off a tough loss on the road, a game that we probably could have won but we didn’t, our guys responded. Shows you a little bit about our guy, the way we came out and started the game and played terrific. Proud of our guys. Two great defensive teams. Jalen Smith was terrific. Both ends of the floor he was great. And our defense was terrific the whole game. Except for maybe the start of the second, our defense was terrific.”

The Terps came out guns blazing in the first half, jumping out to a 28-10 lead in the first 12 minutes of the game and hitting seven of their first 10 three-point attempts to give the Boilermakers and deep hole to climb out of.

“I thought it was really big for each individual,” Terps’ sophomore wing Aaron Wiggins said. “I mean, Eric (Ayala) hit a three coming out the gate, Stix hit one, I hit two, Donta got hot. So for all of us, I think it was really big for us as individuals just to see shots go in, get comfortable, get confident, get our feet under us.”

Maryland also dominated Purdue on the defensive end of the floor in the first half, causing seven turnovers and holding the Boilermakers to 32 percent shooting.

“Our guys were dialed in,” Turgeon said. “ I knew it. Yesterday’s practice they were dialed in. Walkthrough this morning they were dialed in. So I knew defensively we were going to be locked in.”

Terps’ sophomore forward Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith finished the game with his ninth double-double of the season, netting 18 points and ripping down 10 boards for Maryland. Smith also had four blocks against the Boilermakers and hit two threes in the first half that helped spark his team’s early scoring run.

“I just went out there and played my hardest and things fell my way,” Smith said. “I got the rebounds; I blocked the shots and I scored. So I just did whatever my team needed me to do.”

Defensively, Smith helped hold Purdue’s two bigs — Matt Haarms and Trevion Williams — to 12 points, nine rebounds, and two blocks combined.

“It’s amazing what [Smith] is doing,” Turgeon said. “He went head up on those kids, used his length, stayed down. His timing was terrific. It’s a luxury.”

Terps’ freshman forward Donta Scott scored a career-high 13 points for Maryland and also contributed six rebounds of his own. Scott hit two threes in the first half that opened up the Terps’ offense, which complemented the stout defense he played throughout the game.

“That’s huge for us,” Turgeon said. “One, [Scott] guards every night. He’s a terrific defender. He’s got toughness down there. Nojel Eastern was scoring on everybody and all of a sudden Donta is on him and he couldn’t. We need him to make shots. He was 0-for4 against Wisconsin. He hits a couple of them and all of a sudden we’re 5-2 (in the league) instead of 4-3. So those shots were big. He’s grown up in his work habits and his work before practice and after practice. He has really matured there. He was dialed into the scouting report today at a young age. He did a terrific job with that. He did a lot. He’s really important to us. He helps us space the floor.”

Maryland led by as many as 18, but Purdue cut the lead to as little as three late in the game. Boilermakers’ wing Nojel Eastern led the second-half charge by Purdue. The 6-foot-7 junior finished with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting against the Terps.

It was truly a tale of two halves in College Park on Saturday afternoon. Purdue was only able to improve its 32 percent first half shooting performance to 38 percent in the second. But the Boilermakers locked down on defense after halftime, which contributed to Maryland’s shooting percentage dropping from 54 percent to 28 percent between the first and second half. Despite hitting nearly all its threes in the first half, Maryland finished the game missing its last 14 shots from deep.

“You have to give a lot of credit to them and the way they guarded,” Turgeon said. “They locked in after halftime. They were terrific. Couldn’t make shots in the second half. That happens to us. But we kept guarding and we didn’t let our offense affect our defense today, so we ended up figuring out how to win.”

Coming off the bench for the second straight game, Wiggins continued his hot shooting and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds. But overall, Turgeon shortened his rotation in Saturday’s contest, giving only six players double-digit minutes.

“We were resilient, but we have to build our bench a little bit more moving forward,” Turgeon said. “I have four guys in the weight room right now lifting and doing extra cardio because they didn’t play a lot tonight. So that tells you a little bit about our team. They’re frustrated; they want to play more. But we have to become a deeper team if we’re going to be any good down the road.”

Terps’ senior point guard Anthony Cowan didn’t have his best night offensively, shooting 1-for-8 from the field and finishing with just five points. However, he did dish out a game-high seven assists while also locking down on defense for the 35 minutes he played.

“Anthony just wants to win. He came back to win,” Turgeon said. “So he does what it takes to win and he had to do that.”

Maryland will hit the road once again as it heads to Northwestern for its next Big Ten matchup. Still looking for their first win on the road this season, the Terps are riding high off of Saturday’s bounce back victory and are hoping the momentum carries over to Evanston, Illinois.

“I think it shows a lot of resilience for our team, coming off of a tough loss, having the game down to the wire, literally, with 13 seconds left,” Wiggins said. “That’s a tough one to bounce back from. But coming back the way we did, getting off to such a good start, knowing our game plan, knowing how we were guarding specific players. That’s really good for us, and I think we’re starting to get better. Over our last three or four games I think we’re getting a lot better as a team.”