Penn St. 69, Michigan 61

3/1/2008 9:46 PM

By GENARO C. ARMAS
AP Sports Writer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -Talor Battle had career highs of 28 points, 13 rebounds and six assists and Mike Walker added 15 points as Penn State withstood Michigan's 3-point shooting barrage in a 69-61 win on Saturday night.

With Battle, Penn State's freshman point guard, on the bench briefly after a hard fall to the floor, Michigan put together a 7-2 run to whittle down an 11-point deficit, capped by Ron Coleman's floater to take a 49-47 lead with 9:49 left.

But the 5-foot-11 Battle, the shortest player on the Nittany Lions, soon returned to give the Nittany Lions (14-14, 6-10 Big Ten) a lift by hitting two 3-pointers in a 15-0 run that sealed the win.

Battle was on such a roll that even an errant pass during the run didn't hurt Penn State. Double-teamed, Battle tried to toss the ball in the backcourt to Walker, who wasn't watching the play and the ball went free. But Walker retrieved the ball, sidestepped a defender and hit a 3-pointer to cap the 15-0 stretch that put Penn State ahead 62-49 with 4:58 left.

Penn State finished 12-of-22 from 3-point territory, including 5-of-8 by Walker and 7-of-9 by Battle, which was also a career-high for him.

Manny Harris led Michigan (9-20, 5-12) with a career-high 29 points, and hit 5-of-11 from 3-point territory. The Wolverines were 9-for-31 from behind the arc on the night and struggled when they weren't hitting from outside - a season-long problem for a squad that's shooting a Big Ten-worst 40 percent from the field for the season. Kelvin Grady added 11 points for the Wolverines.

Penn State snapped an 11-game losing streak against Michigan, including five in a row at home.