Senior guard James Palmer Jr. scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds as Nebraska held on to defeat Clemson 68-66 Monday night in the first game of the 2018 ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Clemson's Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Cornhuskers led by eight points, 64-56, with 2:15 remaining, but the Tigers chipped away at that lead and pulled to 66-64 with 57 seconds left.

But after a missed shot by Nebraska, Clemson's Marcquise Reed turned the ball over on a travel call with 9.4 seconds remaining and senior guard Glynn Watson Jr. made two free throws with 6.8 seconds left to keep Clemson at bay.

It was the second consecutive loss for Clemson, which dropped out of the Top 25 on Monday after being ranked as high as No. 16 last week. Clemson, coming off an 87-82 loss to Creighton in the championship game of the Cayman Islands Classic, fell to 5-2.

Nebraska, with its lone defeat coming at the hands of Texas Tech, 70-52, in the Hall of Fame Classic on Nov. 20, improved to 6-1.

Clemson and Nebraska have split their only two meetings and both were decided by two points; the Tigers won in a previous ACC/Big Ten Challenge meeting, 60-58, in 2016.

Clemson is 11-8 all-time in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge while Nebraska is 5-3 in the event and one of just two Big Ten teams with a winning record in the Challenge.

Clemson led by as many as six points just a few minutes in, but Nebraska rebounded to grab a four-point lead, 29-25, with 5:14 left in the first half. The Cornhuskers, however, went the remainder of the half without a field goal, allowing the Tigers to pull even, 31-31, at halftime.

Nebraska, which missed the NCAA Tournament last season despite a 21-11 record, controlled the game for most of the second half, primarily behind Palmer, who scored 14 of his 20 points in the final 20 minutes. Palmer made 8-of-14 shots from the floor.

Senior forward Isaac Copeland Jr. had 16 points for Nebraska while Watson finished with 12.

Senior forward Elijah Thomas paced Clemson with 16 points while Reed, a graduate guard, scored 15 points and fellow graduate guard Shelton Mitchell had 13.

--Field Level Media