COLLEGE PARK, Md. _ For the past three weeks, Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon made vague references to his team's 18-point loss at Iowa. It was the low point of the season for the Terps, who would lose their next game four nights later at Wisconsin on a botched inbounds pass.
The back-to-back road defeats seemed to put what had been a promising season in jeopardy.
That dismal trip to Iowa City was put further in Maryland's rearview mirror Thursday night, as the No. 15 Terps, led by senior guard Anthony Cowan Jr. and sophomore forward Jalen Smith, beat the No. 18 Hawkeyes, 82-72, at Xfinity Center, for their fourth straight victory.
With Cowan scoring a career-high 31 points, passing Walt Williams for 12th on the school's all-time scoring list, Maryland (17-4, 7-3 Big Ten) stopped the five-game winning streak that Iowa (15-6, 6-4) started with its win over the Terps.
Smith _ who won Big Ten Player of the Week after leading the Terps to back-to-back road wins at Northwestern and Indiana while averaging 27 points and 11 rebounds _ finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots. It was his 12th double double of the season and fourth straight.
Junior center Luka Garza, the Big Ten's leading scorer, scored 19 points for the Hawkeyes, but was in foul trouble for most of the game and finished with just four rebounds. After Garza picked up his fourth personal with 7:55 left, the Terps pulled away to as much as a 13-point lead.
The Terps caught a break early when Garza, a leading candidate for conference Player of Year, picked up two fouls less than two minutes into the game. Garza, who played his high school ball at the little Maret School in Washington, wound up playing just nine minutes in the half, scoring six points.
Cowan led Maryland with 12 points at half and helped erase an early 18-12 deficit as the Terps took a 36-32 lead at halftime.
The Terps could have had an even bigger lead, but sophomore guard Eric Ayala lost the ball driving to the basket in the closing seconds of the half. Maryland also shot 4-for-12 from 3-point range in the first half, including 1-for-6 by sophomore guard Aaron Wiggins. After hitting four of their first five shots from beyond the arc, the Hawkeyes hit only one of their last eight 3-pointers in the half.
A pair of free throws on Maryland's second possession of the second half increased the lead to six, but Garza cut the lead in half with a 3-pointer from the left wing. After a turnover by the Terps, the Hawkeyes cut the deficit to one. Another turnover gave Iowa a chance to take the lead, but the Hawkeyes missed two shots inside and Maryland increased its lead to three on a breakaway layup by Cowan.
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Smith then blocked Garza and alertly retrieved a potential turnover by junior guard Darryl Morsell for a dunk and a 42-37 lead. Garza scored inside to cut the lead back to three and later had a chance to cut Maryland's 52-49 lead to one, but missed the front end of a one-and-one.
The Terps took advantage, getting a dunk by Smith off a pass from Wiggins. Smith blocked Garza's shot out of bounds and forced the 6-11, 260-pound junior to miss awkwardly inside, and Ayala buried a 3-pointer from the left wing. Garza picked up his fourth personal trying to clear out Smith inside and Wiggins hit a 3-pointer as the shot clock was about to expire.
