COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- No. 24 Maryland (18-6, 9-4 Big Ten) is 5-0 in Big Ten play at home this season and hopes to stay undefeated against the conference in College Park Feb. 12 when the Terps host No. 12 Purdue (17-6, 10-2) in a top-25 matchup at Xfinity Center.

In the first meeting this season between these two teams back on Dec. 6, the Boilermakers edged out Mark Turgeon’s squad, 62-60, in West Lafayette. Purdue will enter Tuesday night’s matchup against the Terps on an eight-game winning streak and as a victor in 11 of its last 12 outings. Conversely, Maryland has lost three of its last five but is coming off of one its most impressive road wins of the season, defeating Nebraska by 15 in Lincoln.

Neither team is where it was in December, and Turgeon expects another close matchup between two teams that have only improved.

“Obviously Purdue is playing as well as anybody,” Turgeon said. “I think they’ve improved as much as anybody. And we talked about our team trying to be one of the most improved teams in the league as the season went on, and I think we’re getting there too. Matt [Painter] has done a nice job. He has had some guys step up. Their young guys are just getting better. They have good young talent. And with Carsen Edwards, anything is possible. He has single-handedly won a couple road games for them by just getting hot. I think we’re both better. It should be a fun night for college basketball.”

Terps freshman guard Eric Ayala echoed his coach’s sentiment Monday and believes he and his teammates’ sense of urgency will be heightened Tuesday night not only because of the loss to the Boilermakers earlier in the season, but also wanting to play well in front of their home crowd.

“We’ve both grown a lot,” Ayala said. “That (loss to Purdue) was earlier in the season. For us, it has been just maturing with the ton of freshmen we have and just growing up by knowing what plays to make and what plays not to make and timing situations throughout the game. For them, they’re on a nice win streak right now and I think it’s important for us to get a win at home to protect home court and just keep playing well here at home.”

In the midst of a stretch of games that includes 7-of-9 away from home, the Terps are certainly pleased to be playing the Boilermakers in College Park this time around.

“I miss playing at home,” Ayala said. “It has a different feel, a different environment. I’m a freshman, so I’m starting to realize how important being at home is and playing at home with the refs and the crowd. We’ve been playing away and the other teams usually get the advantage. So I’m just starting to realize certain stuff as we go along throughout the season. It’s going to be important for us to get a big win [Tuesday]. We’ve been playing well at home, so we just want to keep that going.”

Continuing its streak of wins at home within conference play will require Maryland, namely junior point guard Anthony Cowan Jr., to show up in a big way Tuesday night.

Cowan will be tasked with the challenge of guarding Boilermakers junior point guard and leading scorer, Carsen Edwards, who’s averaging 24.6 points per game so far this season and is one of the leading candidates for Big Ten Player of the Year.

“It’s crazy because I thought we did a terrific job on [Edwards] and he still had 20 points,” Turgeon said. “The kid can score. I just hope he’s missing shots. He makes tough shots over hands. So you just do the best you can on him and play every shot as high as you can. We’ll be locked in. He’ll get our full attention. But they have a lot of really good players around him, which makes him so good. He’s terrific. We’ve played against some good scorers this year, but I don’t know if there are any as good as he is.”

In their first meeting this season, Cowan fared well despite the Terps’ loss. Maryland’s floor general finished with 18 points, six assists, five rebounds, and two steals of his own, and while Edwards was still able to drop 20 points on him, it took him 15 shots and nine trips to the free throw line to do so.

Despite Cowan’s shooting lacking a bit in the Terps’ two most recent wins, Turgeon still likes what he has seen from him defensively and hopes he can play on that end of the floor like he did against Nebraska where he held Cornhuskers starting point guard Glynn Watson to zero points on 0-for-10 from the field.

“[Cowan] has been terrific defensively,” Turgeon said. “I think against [Glynn] Watson at Nebraska he was great. [Tuesday] night he’ll have to take on one of the top two scorers for them and he has been great with that. He hasn’t let [poor shooting] affect his defense in any way, shape or form. That’s what’s really important and that just shows his maturity. He’ll be locked in again tomorrow defensively and hopefully he can get it going [offensively] because when he gets it going we’re pretty good.”

Although Cowan has scored just 13 points in Maryland’s last two wins--over Northwestern and Nebraska--combined, Turgeon isn’t concerned and knows his team leader has been putting in the work to get back on track.

“[Cowan] knows he hasn’t shot the ball well recently, but he works,” Turgeon said. “Anthony is in the gym. The good thing is in really our last two victories Anthony hasn’t really been a big part of it--Northwestern and Nebraska. So it builds confidence as a program that Anthony doesn’t have to be terrific for us to win. He just has to get back to being Anthony and just not put pressure on himself, just relax and let it come within the flow of the game. They’re going to guard him. He gets the best defender every night. He’ll have the two best perimeter defenders on him all night tomorrow night. They’re going to stand on top of him, make it hard for him. But hopefully when he gets the opportunities he takes advantage of it.”

With a little more time in between games than they had in December and January, the Terps are now getting some more time to prepare their bodies and game plan for their upcoming opponents.

On Monday, Turgeon cited giving his team some extra rest ahead of the Nebraska game as a key contributor to the Terps’ strong performance in Lincoln. He has taken the same approach ahead of Tuesday night’s matchup with Purdue and is hoping it will once again pay off.

“We’re just trying to do the best job we can of staying in a rhythm as best we can and staying in shape, but also giving them some time off,” Turgeon said. “It’s dog days for everybody--referees, coaches, players. But I think we’ve done a nice job with it. We’ve given them a couple days off again. We practiced [Sunday], we’re going to practice [Monday] and hopefully we’ll be fresh and ready to go [Tuesday].”

Tip-off in College Park between No. 24 Maryland and No. 12 Purdue is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.