Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2009 1:44:10 GMT -5
Chris Balas
TheWolverine.com Senior Editor
First half, DeShawn Sims ? second half Manny Harris.
Game, Michigan.
Senior forward Sims scored 15 of his game high 19 points in the first half and junior wing Harris notched 16 of his 18 points in the second half and U-M finally pulled away from Arkansas Pine-Bluff, earning a 67-53 win to improve to 4-3.
The Wolverines could only manage a 32-32 tie at the half despite Sims' best effort in several games. They shot three of 15 from three-point range in the half while Pine-Bluff made 53.8 percent of its shots.
Harris only took two shots in the first half but exploded in the second, scoring U-M's first 11 points of the half as part of an 11-1 run that helped open it up. Six points came on triples, an area in which he'd been struggling coming in.
Harris had no problem deferring to Sims in the first half.
"I set a standard ? said assert yourself down low, see where it takes you," said Sims. "It's basketball ? just the opportunities I was able to get today. They looked for me early and often. That's why we were able to be successful in the post today."
"We'd look at him, let him work, feed of him ? that's something we haven't been doing," said Harris. "We've been kind of playing outside, looking for threes instead of looking in and letting it create for our outside game. So we looked for him a lot."
Laval Lucas-Perry provided an early spark with two triples for Michigan's first six points, but he played only 13 minutes due to foul trouble. Head coach John Beilein stayed with a rotation of Sims, Harris, freshman Darius Morris (8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), sophomore Zack Novak (7 points, 3 rebounds) and sophomore Stu Douglass (3 points, 1-for-7 triples) for much of the game.
Morris looked to penetrate much more than he had in recent games and played well, though Douglass continued to struggle with his shot.
"I still don't know how we're going to get out of this deal where we have some pretty good shooters who have lost so much confidence," said Beilein. "But when that happens you have to play great defense, and that's the only thing that saved us in this second half."
TheWolverine.com Senior Editor
First half, DeShawn Sims ? second half Manny Harris.
Game, Michigan.
Senior forward Sims scored 15 of his game high 19 points in the first half and junior wing Harris notched 16 of his 18 points in the second half and U-M finally pulled away from Arkansas Pine-Bluff, earning a 67-53 win to improve to 4-3.
The Wolverines could only manage a 32-32 tie at the half despite Sims' best effort in several games. They shot three of 15 from three-point range in the half while Pine-Bluff made 53.8 percent of its shots.
Harris only took two shots in the first half but exploded in the second, scoring U-M's first 11 points of the half as part of an 11-1 run that helped open it up. Six points came on triples, an area in which he'd been struggling coming in.
Harris had no problem deferring to Sims in the first half.
"I set a standard ? said assert yourself down low, see where it takes you," said Sims. "It's basketball ? just the opportunities I was able to get today. They looked for me early and often. That's why we were able to be successful in the post today."
"We'd look at him, let him work, feed of him ? that's something we haven't been doing," said Harris. "We've been kind of playing outside, looking for threes instead of looking in and letting it create for our outside game. So we looked for him a lot."
Laval Lucas-Perry provided an early spark with two triples for Michigan's first six points, but he played only 13 minutes due to foul trouble. Head coach John Beilein stayed with a rotation of Sims, Harris, freshman Darius Morris (8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists), sophomore Zack Novak (7 points, 3 rebounds) and sophomore Stu Douglass (3 points, 1-for-7 triples) for much of the game.
Morris looked to penetrate much more than he had in recent games and played well, though Douglass continued to struggle with his shot.
"I still don't know how we're going to get out of this deal where we have some pretty good shooters who have lost so much confidence," said Beilein. "But when that happens you have to play great defense, and that's the only thing that saved us in this second half."