Michigan basketball beats Arkansas-Pine Bluff 67-53

The lessons learned by Michigan early in the season remained true to its one-man band form Saturday.

Against a team that has yet to play at home, that showed up at Crisler Arena an hour before tip-off, Michigan didn’t awaken from its offensive slumber until junior guard Manny Harris did.

Harris was held scoreless for all but four seconds of the first half and as he awoke, so did the Wolverines, coasting to a 67-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a game that had the makings of a colossal upset in the first half.

Harris didn’t score until two free throws with :04.4 seconds remaining in the first half when he gave Michigan a 32-30 lead. Arkansas-Pine Bluff senior Terrance Calvin then went the length of the court and made a runner at the buzzer to tie the game at 32-32 at halftime.

It was after half when Harris returned to his all-Big Ten form, scoring the first 11 Michigan points after halftime to give the Wolverines a 43-33 lead. He did it from all areas, too, hitting three-pointers and driving to the basket.

Harris scored 18 points, the first time in six games the Detroit native did not lead Michigan in scoring.

His play, though, picked the rest of Michigan (4-3), save for senior forward DeShawn Sims, out of its first half funk. Sims, in many ways, kept the Wolverines in the game in the first half by scored 15 of his 19 points to go with 10 rebounds, his third double-double of the season.

Much of the problem, offensively, was Michigan’s three-point shooting continued its hiatus from Crisler Arena or anywhere else the Wolverines have played the past two weeks.

After a 9 of 34 performance against Boston College, Michigan was 3 of 15 in the first half against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The Wolverines haven’t shot over 30 percent from the three-point line in seven of their past eight halves.

Turnovers, though, killed Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-6), committing 22 of them. Savalance Townsend led the Golden Lions with 14 points.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.