UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Another slow start and a season-high 20 turnovers Dec. 10 resulted in No. 4 Maryland (10-1, 1-1 Big Ten) losing its first game of the season with a 76-69 loss to Penn State (8-2, 1-1) at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

“I thought Penn State was terrific from the first play,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said after the game. “They ran a lob on us. We saw it coming and couldn’t do anything about it, and I thought defensively they were great for 40 minutes. They’re quick, they’re fast, they fly around, they run you off the three-point line. They were really good. They were really good tonight defensively. With that said, you can’t go on the road and shoot 29 percent and have 20 turnovers and win a game.”

The night ended with a court storming by Nittany Lions fans, as Penn State was led by its seniors Lamar Stevens and Mike Watkins, who each had a 15-point double-double. Watkins tied Maryland sophomore Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith for a game-high 11 rebounds, while Stevens ripped down 10 boards of his own.

“They have really good big guys that are old,” Turgeon said. “They’re good. They’ve got good players.”

Watkins shot an efficient 7-for-11 from the field Tuesday night and also chipped in four of Penn State’s 10 blocks against the Terps.

“Mike Watkins, he’s a big presence down there,” Terps’ sophomore guard Eric Ayala said. “He’s a big guy. He carves out a lot of space. Credit to Mike Watkins. He was big-time tonight.”

After a big first half in which he netted 11 points, Ayala was slowed up by Penn State’s defense in the second half and scored just four more points the rest of the way.

Stevens, on the other hand, scored eight of his 15 in the second half, including a clutch fade-away jumper out of a timeout with just under three minutes left in the game that killed a tiny run by the Terps. Stevens also added four assists and two blocks to his totals.

“You just always have to be aware of [Stevens], on the offensive and defensive end,” Terps’ senior point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. said. “I think he’s very good at both. I think coach (Pat) Chambers did a good job of getting him the ball in the right spots so that definitely helps a lot.”

Cowan finished with a game-high 16 points, but he needed 17 shots to get there and led the Terps with four turnovers. As a team, Maryland went into halftime with 13 turnovers — and just 11 field goals — to Penn State’s three giveaways, which put the Terps into a hole they were unable to climb out of.

“We have to learn from a lot of mistakes that we had in this game,” Cowan said. “Twenty turnovers is way too much. That’s not going to win many games, so we just have to get better.”

The season-high in turnovers is just one several areas Turgeon said his team needs to work on moving forward. He credited overdribbling as the reason why the Terps were so careless with the ball on Tuesday night, but with a nine-day break before Maryland’s next game, Maryland’s lead man is looking forward to having the time to get mistakes corrected in practice.

“We wanted to lead the country in dribbles tonight,” Turgeon said. “Just guys overdribbling, not making the easy play. We have a long ways to go offensively, and we’re struggling a little bit. We can’t make layups and we can’t make open shots, and it has been that way for 11 games now. We’ve just been good enough defensively and we weren’t on the road. But tonight, the better team tonight won.”

With some time to recoup before a big-time matchup with Seton Hall Dec. 19, Turgeon hopes his team’s tough loss on the road — it’s fourth in a row in State College — will help motivate his team moving forward.

“Hopefully this will refocus us,” Turgeon said. “We just played six (games) in 13 (days). That was a tough stretch for us. So we haven’t really had a lot of practice time. And I’m not making excuses; the better team won, but we had five plays we could run.”

Penn State also received a heavy lift off the bench from junior guard Izaiah Brockington, who netted 14 points and swiped three steals.

“[Brockington] is really good,” Turgeon said. “He’s really aggressive. He’s a terrific athlete and a terrific defender. He’s a really good player.”

Maryland, which went 3-for-18 from the field in the final 10 minutes of the game, had to get its points from the free-throw line, where the Terps went 23-for-28. Despite the poor shooting effort from the field, Maryland still finished with four double-digit scorers and Smith picked up his third consecutive double-double and seventh of the year.

The Terps shot just 33 percent from the field Tuesday night and were only able to turn 17 offensive rebounds into nine second-chance points. As the defense looked lost at times by Penn State’s ball movement (19 assists on 29 field goals), Maryland had one of its poorest defensive outings of the season, as well. They’ll look to right the ship and get back in the win column Dec. 19 in Newark, New Jersey, as the Terps travel to Seton Hall.