Michal Cekovsky and Ivan Bender knew little about each other when they began playing together on the Maryland basketball team in the winter of 2015. They were transplants from Europe, trying to learn English and navigating a foreign world as college basketball players in the United States.

But during one of their first conversations together, they found common ground: goulash. The Hungarian stew had been a staple for both growing up in their respective countries: Cekovsky is from Slovakia, Bender from Bosnia. They longed for that kind of family camaraderie in College Park and wanted to hold on to their roots, so in the middle of last season they set aside a Sunday afternoon to cook.

It was one of the first times they had hung out off the court, but it soon became a weekly tradition. Nearly two years after they first met, as both Cekovsky and Bender are blossoming on the court for the Terrapins (12-1), they continue to bond off it, especially in the kitchen of their College Park apartment.

“Every time we eat or prepare something, maybe we don’t feel like it, but it does bond” us, Bender said.

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Cekovsky, a 7-foot-1 junior, averages 10 points and 3.8 rebounds this season. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Cekovsky, a 7-foot-1 junior, and Bender, a 6-9 redshirt sophomore, not only cook together several times per week but also typically shop together at a nearby Whole Foods. While their time in the United States has inspired a passion for rib-eye steaks, they often choose to emulate the traditional meals their parents whipped up when they were children. They shop online at ­UkusiBalkana.com for small luxuries from home, including Eurocrem, a Serbian chocolate spread, and Cedevita, a Croatian orange vitamin drink. Cekovsky and Bender are infatuated with both products.

“We’re trying to make what we like, what we used to eat when we were back home,” Cekovsky said.

Cekovsky is more hard core about cooking; he considers it his fourth priority in College Park behind family, school and basketball, and his dream is one day to open a restaurant in Slovakia. But Bender has found his own touch in the kitchen.

A day after both played key roles in Maryland’s win over Jacksonville State, they spent a couple of hours preparing goulash. Cekovsky took the lead. He meticulously followed the recipe from memory, wearing the same focused look as he does on the court. Everything is about touch, so after heating the stove and boiling chopped beef with roasted onions for 45 minutes, he carefully sliced tomatoes, carrots, garlic, basil and oregano to add. He topped it off with a Slovakian paprika and a Serbian seasoning, both purchased online, a mix of tastes from both his and Bender’s homelands.

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“They’re taking it to a whole another level with the cooking. They’re cooking, and it’s a production. They take their time and enjoy the process of it,” Maryland assistant coach Cliff Warren said.

Warren regularly checks the apartments of his players, and while most fit the typical standard of dorm living, Cekovsky and Bender’s place always has been strikingly clean and organized. It smells different, too.

Bender, a 6-9 redshirt sophomore, is averaging 4.8 points and 3.4 rebounds. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)

“I kept noticing, even if Ceko and Ivan were in their room, a great smell, an aroma from their apartment,” Warren said. “I said, ‘What are you guys cooking?’ They said come by at 3 and you’ll see.”

Warren took them up on the offer and has returned often for dinner on Sunday evenings when the team is not playing or practicing; he has even brought his son on occasion. The invitation is not limited to Warren. A few weeks ago, Cekovsky made a traditional dish of chicken, pasta and a white sauce with broccoli for him and Bender. They had plenty of food left over, so Cekovsky group-texted several of his teammates: “Who’s hungry?” Almost immediately, teammates Damonte Dodd, Jared Nickens, Andrew Terrell and Jaylen Brantley showed up.

“They ate everything,” Cekovsky said with a smile. “They cleaned it.”

While maintaining their roots through cooking, Cekovsky and Bender have become more confident and assimilated than they were as wide-eyed freshmen. Cekovsky, who struggled to order a burrito at Chipotle early in his freshman season, let alone adapt to the college game, has drastically improved his English. While both talk to their families in Europe by Skype or FaceTime every day, Bender has been comforted by the fact that his brother, Dragan, is stateside after being picked in the first round of the NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns earlier this year.

The increased confidence is showing on the court as well; both have become key pieces in the frontcourt after missing time with injuries early in the season. Cekovsky added about 15 pounds of muscle as well as significantly more brashness. He has fully grasped his role in Coach Mark Turgeon’s system and is averaging 10 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. Bender, considered the team’s most improved player of the offseason, became a spark plug off the bench and has started three games while Dodd recovers from a knee injury. Bender is averaging 4.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 14.2 minutes, and he scored a season-high 10 points in each of the team’s past two games.

Cekovsky’s commitments to basketball kept him in College Park over the summer, but he cooked as often as he could. His family used to visit a cabin deep in a forest in Slovakia every summer. The kids played soccer while the adults cooked goulash over the fire, and Cekovsky’s father would play an old guitar as everyone ate around the flames. He is flooded with those memories every time he cooks the stew, which he is lucky enough to share with Bender a world away from home.

“When we sit and we’re ready to eat,” Cekovsky said, “it’s the best feeling.”