The rip in Zack Novak’s jersey was subtle, but it said it all.

The junior guard and co-captain for the Michigan men’s basketball team is known for his intensity and fiery nature on the court — it’s rare to see Novak ever get out-hustled, and you’d need restraints to ever prevent him from diving for a loose ball.

So when the tear in his top became visible when speaking to reporters after the Wolverines’ 76-69 win over Penn State on Sunday afternoon at Crisler Arena, it wasn’t a surprising sight.

It was a symbol of Novak’s afternoon. He struggled in the first half, failing to notch a rebound or a point while collecting two fouls. And Michigan, too, never found an offensive rhythm — several players commented that the Wolverines weren’t running their sets crisply enough. And that led to forced shots and a halftime deficit to the Nittany Lions.

But the Wolverines turned up their aggressiveness in the second half, led by Novak. He scored 10 points in the frame, punctuated by a hard-charging fastbreak drive that turned into a layup and a made free throw after he got fouled.

“It’s really huge for us,” sophomore point guard Darius Morris said of Novak after the game. “Again, one of the leaders on our team. It feels good to go out there and see him do what he did today, and really respond big … to really come out and just hit a couple of big shots and knock down those free throws, it was huge for him.”

Michigan had four such ‘And-1’ plays in the second half, and each one helped swing momentum away from Penn State.

Even sophomore guard Matt Vogrich got in on the action. The Lake Forest, Ill. native is known for his 3-point shooting. Up to this point in his career for the Wolverines, he has gone for offense almost exclusively from long range.

Michigan coach John Beilein joked that Vogrich probably hadn’t had a successful ‘And-1’ since his high school days. But Vogrich’s drive and free throw with 3:23 left in the game gave Michigan the lead at 63-61 — one the team wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the evening.

“We’ve been working on hitting the lane and finishing a little bit more,” Novak said. “Vogrich in a lot of places would probably come in and just be a shooter … come in, get your threes up, go to practice, play a little bit of defense.

“You’re not going to have a guy like that working on finishing with bags, but (Beilein’s) got everybody from Vogrich to last guy on the bench working on getting better.”

The Wolverines’ aggressive surge was made possible only because their defense made a similar leap.

In the first half, Penn State routinely found open shooters, especially deep in the corners. The Nittany Lions went four-of-nine from 3-point range. And the team had almost as many offensive rebounds — six — as Michigan had defensive ones (seven), making it more difficult for the Wolverines to get out on the break.

That changed after halftime. Michigan buckled down and did a much better job of closing out on shooters, leading to Penn State’s three-of-12 performance from long range in the second frame.

The result was more fast-break opportunities for Michigan off of Nittany Lion misses and more freedom for Morris and others to play aggressive in the half-court offense, since they knew they could get a stop on the other end.

“The fast breaks were really big,” Beilein said. “But in order to be aggressive offensively, you’ve got to get a stop. We were taking the ball out of the goal-line the whole time (the first half) … We’re good at running the floor, because we can spread people out, we can get to the basket, we can shoot threes.”

Added Novak: “(Getting stops) was the key. We were able to run a little bit, get some open shots. Once we got into a flow, it was good from there.”