ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — It was something you’d see more often on the And-1 Mixtape Tour than on the hardwood at historic Boardwalk Hall of Atlantic City.

Early in the second half of Michigan’s semifinal matchup in the Legends Classic against No. 9 Syracuse, junior shooting guard Zack Novak lunged for a loose ball headed for the baseline, and as he fell out of bounds, spiked the ball at Syracuse forward Kris Joseph’s shin. Joseph unintentionally kicked the ball out of bounds and shook his head in dismay as he trotted back to his end of the court.

Novak’s aggressive, hard-nosed play underneath was just a microcosm of how the Wolverines (3-1) kept the matchup with the Orange (5-0) close, even though Michigan lost the nail biter, 53-50.

Although undersized, Michigan coach John Beilein’s frontcourt was scrappy, closing off lanes to the hoop and pushing Syracuse’s big men away from the basket all night long. Using both 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones in the first half, and a man-to-man in the second half, the Wolverines forced the struggling Orange shooters to take chances from the perimeter.

Against William and Mary last Sunday, Syracuse shot a measly 36.7 percent from the field, so it was clear that Beilein was forcing his opponents to shoot. But in this game, Syracuse forward Kris Joseph stepped up and put the Orange on his back, shooting 8-for-14 from the field and finishing up the contest with 22 points.

“I think we had really good defense by both teams,” Beilein said. “For us to take 60 shots and them to shoot 48 — really good defense. Usually the defense isn’t ahead of the offense this time of the year, but it certainly was today. Our team learned a lot today, and we’ll grow from this.”

On the other end, to the surprise of many, Michigan was just as aggressive underneath. Typically known for keeping the ball on the perimeter, Beilein had the ball distributed to his men under the basket a bit more often against Syracuse.

On Michigan’s first possession, sophomore point guard Darius Morris found redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan in the post, and he finished an easy layup for the game’s first basket.

The next possession — Morris hit Morgan with a pass to the post again, but this time Syracuse forward Rick Jackson was pushing him away from the paint. But it wasn’t an issue for Morgan, who faked to the baseline, came back the other way and sunk a short jumper from the key.

Two Michigan possessions later, freshman forward Tim Hardaway Jr. rimmed a three, and Morgan thrusted his hips into Syracuse’s 7-foot freshman center Fab Melo to gain position, clean up the board and put it back in.

The Wolverines’ first six points came from the 6-foot-8 center, who was out-sized by two of the three Orange frontcourt defenders. It was as shocking a start as ever, considering few teams in the nation can find easy holes in Boeheim’s long 2-3 zone scheme.

“Michigan is a very difficult team to play against,” Boeheim said. “They’ve got four shooters in the game all the time. I thought Beilein did a tremendous job — Morgan got those 6-8 points early, and after that, I thought he was very good. He made us take some tough shots in there.”

Early this season, it’s becoming increasingly evident that Michigan is gaining confidence in frontcourt play that most preseason analysts dubbed too inexperienced to play in the Big Ten. Every game, Morgan and the forwards on either side of him are impressing with their physicality in the post.

And against Syracuse, they proved they could do it against some of the nation’s premier frontcourt talent.

“(Morgan) is really growing — he’s learning the different ways to get his body on people.” Beilein said. “And another good rebounding game, a double-figure scoring game for him, so we like what we see from him. And he’s got another gear that he’s learning about every day. And we’re pushing him to (see) that he’s got even more he can do.”