U-M Downs Arkansas-Pine Bluff 67-53

The Michigan basketball team improved to 4-3 on the season with a 67-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday afternoon at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor. DeShawn Sims double-double paced the Wolverines.

ANN ARBOR - The University of Michigan basketball team snapped a three-game losing streak and improved to 4-3 on the season with a 67-53 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Saturday afternoon at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor.

DeShawn Sims scored a game-high 19 points, plus added 10 rebounds in the win. 15 of Sims 19 points came in the first half as the Wolverines struggled to put away the visiting Golden Lions with a 32-32 score at the break.

Over the first five and a half minutes of the second half, the Maize and Blue emerged, though. Manny Harris opened the stanza with the Wolverines first 11 points out of the half, part of an 11-1 run to spot Michigan a 43-33 lead.

Savalance Townsend ended the Wolverines run with the Golden Lions first made field goal of the second half, a jumper with 13:54 left on the clock. Again, however, Michigan answered. Zack Novak made good on a three-point play. After a pair of Townsend free throws, Harris added yet another Michigan three ball.

Zack Gibson and Darius Morris pushed the lead to a game-high 17 points minutes later. Morris connected on a jumper, before two easy buckets in the paint by Gibson, the Wolverines big man. Morris then added two free throws to make it 57-40.

The teams exchanged buckets over the final minutes until Michigan emerged 67-53.

In the first half, after a pair of Laval Lucas-Perry triples and two free throws by Morris put the Wolverines in front 8-2, the teams battled back and forth to a 32-32 draw.

After clawing back within one at 12-11, the Golden Lions took their first lead of the game on a Dominic Moore triple with 8:33 remaining in the half.

Novak and Sims answered with a pair of buckets to pull the Wolverines back even at 16-16. Minutes later the Maize and Blue went back up 19-18 on Stu Douglass' lone three-pointer of the afternoon. Sims matched the Golden Lions next offensive flury with seven straight Michigan points. Gibson, Harris and Sims each added one more bucket of the half to give the 32-32 score.

Michigan returns to the road on Wednesday night for an important non-conference battle with the Utah Utes. Tip-off is scheduled for 9:00 p.m.