COLLEGE PARK, Md. _ Maryland's Jalen Smith started Wednesday night's game looking like a player still recovering from a 24-hour stomach flu, which caused the freshman from Baltimore to miss his first men's college basketball game last Saturday against Radford.
The former Mount Saint Joseph star finished it looking like the first-round NBA pick he's projected to be, scoring the last seven points for Maryland as the Terps beat No. 24 Nebraska, 74-72, at Xfinity Center.
After Smith's put-back _ coming off a missed 3-pointer by junior forward Anthony Cowan Jr. _ with 31 seconds to go to put Maryland up 72-71, James Palmer hit one of two free throws to tie the game. After two timeouts, one by each team, Smith hit a floater with 3.8 seconds to go gave Maryland (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten) the victory.
Cornhuskers coach Tim Miles set up a last-second play that seemed to work _ an eventual lob pass to jumping jack Isaiah Roby that was knocked away by Maryland's own jumping jack, freshman Ricky Lindo Jr.
The victory was the first by the Terps over a ranked team since a win over No. 18 Purdue _ when Maryland was ranked fourth _ during the 2015-16 season. The Terps had lost their past eight games against ranked teams.
Cowan led Maryland with 19 points. Sophomore center Bruno Fernando finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, but also committed six of Maryland's 13 turnovers. Smith scored 15 points, with 12 coming in the second half.
Palmer, who scored 24 of his 26 points in the second half of last year's 70-66 win over the Terps in Lincoln, finished with 26 on Wednesday to lead the Cornhuskers (11-3, 1-2), scoring 13 points in the first 10:20 to help Nebraska lead by as many as five, 29-24.
Maryland went on a 9-0 run fueled by Fernando and Cowan, but Nebraska answered with an 8-0 run of its own. The Cornhuskers led at halftime, 39-35, on a baseline floater by sophomore guard Thomas Allen with 1.8 seconds left in the half.
Cowan would finish the half with 10 points, and Fernando had eight points and nine rebounds, but also committed four of Maryland's eight first-half turnovers.
Smith only played nine minutes in the first half, and except for an early corner 3-pointer, didn't contribute much to Maryland's cause. After scoring on a dunk to start the second half, he didn't do much in the second half until the final minutes.
