Harris scores 24, Abram adds 12 for Wolverines

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Dion Harris was an important cog for Michigan's run to the postseason NIT championship last season.

Harris is now doing it again for the Wolverines in their push to become to the first team to win the postseason NIT and preseason NIT the following season.

The guard scored a career-high 24 points and had four assists and five steals Wednesday to lead Michigan to a 69-60 victory over Colorado in the second round of the preseason NIT. The win earns the Wolverines (2-0) a return trip to New York City for the semifinals against the winner of Wednesday's Arizona-Wright State second-round game.

"Dion Harris' play was just tremendous," said Michigan coach Tommy Amaker. "His overall floor game was as good as it's been since he's been here. It couldn't have come at a better time."

Harris, who averaged 13 points a game during the postseason NIT, is the only Wolverine averaging in double figures through the first two games of the preseason NIT.

"Coach talked to me and told me he wanted me to be a real confident player this year and more aggressive," Harris said. "That's what I'm trying to do. I think I was just being aggressive on offense and tried to create and make things happen. I think it really paid off for me."

The Wolverines, who also got 12 points from Lester Abram, built their largest lead of the game, 61-42, with 5:24 left. But Colorado scored 11 straight points to cut Michigan's lead to 61-53 with 2:44 remaining.

The Buffaloes tightened the score to 65-58 on Richard Roby's 3-pointer with 56 seconds left, but a basket by Courtney Sims and two free throws by Harris sealed the win.

"I was excited to see the team continue to get better," said Colorado coach Ricardo Patton. "By the time we realized we could play with Michigan we had dug too deep a hole. We cut the lead to seven but gave up a turnover and then a dunk and couldn't get back into it. Our guys showed a lot of good things and we'll have a lot of growth with this team."

Roby scored 18 points and Marcus Hall had 16 for the Buffaloes (1-1). Roby, a freshman, was responsible for guarding Harris.

"He's a good shooter so coach put me on him because I have length and I was trying to contest his shots," Roby said. "He moves well without the ball and had a good game. I tried to make him work on defense a lot so that maybe some of those shots wouldn't drop in the second half."

Game notes
Graham Brown was helped off the court with 2:44 left when he was accidentally hit under his right eye while going for a rebound. ... Sims had his third double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. ... Colorado, which had 12 blocked shots in its opener against Charleston, had 12 against Michigan. ... The Wolverines are 17-0 all-time in NIT games played at Crisler Arena.