Terrapins Surprise Jayhawks

Men’s college basketball

Playing close to home with a chance to knock off the No. 2 team in the country, Maryland came out energized and fearless.

Weary from criss-crossing the country from tournament to tournament, Kansas showed up flat.

The result: a frenetic first half and a 54-41 lead for the No. 23 Terrapins. Though they blew the lead, lost their two top players to fouls and didn’t score a field goal in the last 4:10, they held on by making seven of eight free throws in the final two minutes to beat the Jayhawks 86-83 Sunday in the first round of the Franklin National Bank Classic at Washington.

Rodney Elliot had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Maryland (4-2), but fouled out with 3 minutes, 58 seconds to play. Laron Profit had 13 points, but was gone with 2:11 left. Sarunas Jasikevicius also had 21 points.

Paul Pierce overcame a foot injury to lead Kansas (8-1) with 26 points, but he also fouled out. Raef LaFrentz had 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Jayhawks, who failed to make the championship game of a holiday tournament for the first time in Roy Williams’ 10 years as coach.

In the other game, Yegor Mescheriakov scored with 26.1 seconds to play to give George Washington (6-2) a 66-62 victory over Pennsylvania (3-3).

(13) Connecticut 59, Rutgers 44

At Piscataway, N.J., Richard Hamilton scored 21 points and the Huskies (7-1, 2-0 Big East) held the Scarlet Knights (1-4, 0-2) to three field goals in the second half.

Portland 75, St. Martin’s 62

At Portland, Jason Franklin scored 25 points, 15 of those in the first half, to lead the Pilots (5-2) past the Saints (3-4) in a non-conference game.

Franklin connected on six of nine first-half shots, including three 3-pointers, as Portland built a 42-30 halftime lead.