LINCOLN, Neb. ÷ Jammal Lord threw his first career touchdown pass and ran for 103 yards in his first start for Nebraska as the No. 10 Cornhuskers beat Arizona State 48-10 on Saturday night in the Black Coaches Association Classic.

The Cornhuskers blocked two punts and played strong defensively on a night they were trying to forget closing last season with blowout losses to Colorado and Miami.

Nebraska scored 38 points in the second half as it improved to 6-0 in "preseason'' games.

Lord's first start was highly anticipated, largely because Nebraska's offense had been centered around 2001 Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch for the past three years.

While Lord and the option attack struggled at times, he also showed some promise.

With three new starters on the offensive line, Lord didn't get a lot of protection and was forced to scramble a lot. He finished with 17 carries with most of his yardage coming on broken pass plays.

He also completed 5 of 13 passes for 33 yards, including a 9-yard strike to Wilson Thomas that put the Huskers up 17-3 early in the second half.

Arizona State's Chad Christensen, a redshirt freshman who was starting his first college game, was 6-for-16 for 77 yards, and Mike Williams scored on a 34-yard run. Williams had 12 carries for 77 yards for the Sun Devils (0-1).

Dahrran Diedrick, Cory Ross and Judd Davies also scored for the Huskers and Fabian Washington, a true freshman who starts his first college classes next week, returned an interception 29 yards for the final TD.

After yielding 99 points in the final two games of last year, Nebraska's defense wanted a big night and got it. The defense held Arizona State to 258 total yards, 52 of which came on the final drive against Nebraska reserves.

The defense also set up one score with a sack just outside the goal line, scored one on a blocked punt and set up another TD with the second blocked kick.

Demoine Adams started it when he sacked Christensen at the ASU 1 on third down, then Tim Parker shanked the punt to the right sideline and Nebraska got the ball on the 20. The Huskers drove to the 9 and Lord hit Thomas for his first touchdown pass.

On third-and-7 in the next series, Chris Kelsay ran down Christensen and sacked him at the 10. Demorrio Williams blocked Parker's punt and Scott Shanle scooped it up and went 6 yards for the touchdown that put the Huskers up 24-3 with 9:38 left in the third.

ASU cut it to 24-10 when Williams broke away on a run up the middle, but Nebraska countered with Josh Brown's 42-yard field goal and Diedrick's 2-yard dive over the top with 7:12 left. The Huskers opened the touchdown drive on the Arizona State 9 after Williams recovered the second blocked punt.

Lord quickly showed a knack for scrambling. His 33-yard run on what was supposed to be a pass started Nebraska's first touchdown drive.

Lord eluded the initial rush and did a head fake on Mason Unk that spun the linebacker in a circle, then took off down the right sideline to the Arizona State 24.

Davies scored on a dive eight plays later.