TAMPA, Fla. - Just under four minutes into the game, junior Courtney Sims - Michigan's leading scorer and rebounder at that point - sat on the Michigan men's basketball bench. After picking up two quick fouls, Sims had to leave the game and did not return in the first half.

Michigan coach Tommy Amaker had to turn to his bench - specifically senior forward Chris Hunter - to fill Sims's missing production.

And Hunter delivered.

"We definitely want Courtney out there, but we have confidence in guys coming off the bench, like myself and Ron Coleman," Hunter said. "We can come in and do a good job ourselves. I just came in and tried to do my job."

When the Gary, Ind., native entered the game with 16 minutes left in the first half, he immediately made an impact on the defensive side of the court.

In 11 minutes of play, Hunter grabbed three defensive rebounds during the Wolverines' 19-0 run. His key boards kept South Florida's players off the offensive glass. The Bulls could muster just two offensive rebounds during Hunter's time on the court.

"I was just trying to bring a little energy off the bench," Hunter said. "I was just trying to keep up the defensive intensity and hold them to one shot. I think that we did a great job of that for a long stretch of the first half."

Junior guard Dion Harris also chipped in on the defensive glass while Sims had to sit and watch the game from the bench. The 6-foot-3 guard ran down loose balls and collected them for the Wolverines. In the first half, Harris grabbed five defensive rebounds.

"Dion did a phenomenal job of (attacking the glass)," senior forward Graham Brown said. "You have to continue to have that."

Return to sender: After a week, Brown finally missed a shot. In fact, he missed two.

In the Wolverines' previous two games, Brown hadn't missed a field goal. On Saturday, against South Florida, Brown finished the night 1-for-3.

But it wasn't that the senior suddenly lost his touch around the basket.

Instead, South Florida's Solomon Jones kept swatting his shots away.

The 6-foot-10 forward came into Saturday's game against the Wolverines leading the Bulls with 23 blocks, and he currently stands third in the Big East with an average of 3.8 blocks per game.

Looming in the lane, Jones made his presence felt early and often, and Brown found out firsthand.

With a little less than four minutes left in the first half, Brown took the ball on left block and turned to lay it off the glass. Jones had other plans, sending the ball sailing out of bounds and into the first row of bleachers.

Later in the frame, Brown attempted a little floater in the lane. Jones soared to deflect the ball and met it at the height of the shot. He promptly swatted it away from the basket.

On the night, Jones finished with five blocks and altered Michigan's field goal percentage in the first half. The Wolverines shot just 36 percent in that frame.

"He's an outstanding shot-blocker," South Florida coach Robert McCullum said. "If you drive in there without shot faking, he's probably got a pretty good chance of blocking it."

Putting a lid on it: South Florida had just scored five straight points and seemed poised to gain some much-needed momentum going into the locker room at halftime.

But Lester Abram had other plans.

With 41 seconds left in the first half, Abram took the ball on the wing, faked a dribble drive to the baseline and drove inside. He converted the lay-up while South Florida's Zaronn Cann fouled him. Abram made the free throw to silence the raging Sun Dome crowd and send Michigan to halftime with all of the momentum.

"I was just trying to attack," Abram said. "I just tried to stay on the attack because they only played like six guys, so we knew that getting them in foul trouble would be big for our team."