Atop redshirt senior C.J. Lee's locker was a note: "On defense you must guard like..." A black Adidas football glove was taped to it.

"One of our assistant coaches put it up there, and I told him I definitely got the message," Lee said. "That was the emphasis for tonight — defense and locking up, just strapping down on defense. And that's what we did."

Lee played a career-high 29 minutes and held sophomore guard Talor Battle, the Big Ten's leading scorer, to just nine points in Michigan's crucial 71-51 victory over Penn State last night at Crisler Arena.

"Great defense," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "Best we've played all year."

Sophomore Manny Harris led Michigan in scoring for the 13th time this season, racking up 28 points, 19 in the second half. He also collected seven assists and six rebounds. Freshman Stu Douglass added 13 points on 3-of-7 shooting from behind the arc.

The win was a perfect gift to Beilein on his 56th birthday.

Michigan (5-6 Big Ten, 15-8 overall) needed to win last night's game more than any other this season. Coming in, the Wolverines had lost five of their last six games. In the next five days, they face No. 1 Connecticut and No. 13 Michigan State. And like Penn State, the Wolverines are in the hunt for an NCAA Tournament bid.

So Beilein went a little out of his comfort zone to make sure his team understood the circumstances.

"I told the guys yesterday, I haven't gone to one game this year and said, 'Hey guys, this is an important game,'" Beilein said. "And I don't know if I would have told (the media) this if we had lost, but we really thought this was an important game."

Even administrative specialist Jeff Meyer did his best to motivate the team. Both Wednesday and Thursday, he sent text messages reminding players that according to ESPN's Bracketology, which predicts the NCAA Tournament bracket, Penn State (6-4, 17-6) was pegged as one of the "Last four in" and Michigan was one of the "Next four out."

A change in the starting lineup — one that emphasized defense — also indicated the game's importance.

Beilein started redshirt junior Zack Gibson in place of the team's second-leading scorer DeShawn Sims and Lee instead of sophomore Kelvin Grady, who played just one minute last night after starting the last eight games.

Neither Grady nor Beilein said there was an off-court reason for the reduction in his playing time.

"We were trying to get a little more defensive to start," Beilein said. "I just felt that mixing it up a little bit would be a better way to attack them tonight."

But at halftime, the game was still up in the air. Despite playing superb defense, Michigan scored just 29 points in the first half and trailed by two at the break.

During halftime, Beilein gave a positive talk to instill confidence on the offensive end.

"It sparked us," Harris said. "From the beginning of the second half, the spark was there."

Michigan outscored Penn State 42-20 in the final 20 minutes behind 64-percent shooting from the field. It was the first time the Wolverines shot over 50 percent in a half since their Jan. 11 win at Iowa.

Though Michigan got the win it badly needed, it has no time to celebrate.

Next on tap is No. 1 Connecticut tomorrow evening in Storrs, Conn. The Wolverines are 1-18 all-time against first-ranked teams.