STATE COLLEGE — Midway through the first half of Michigan’s 66-62 win over Penn State on Saturday, senior forward J.C. Mathis fell victim to the plague of injures that has stricken many of his teammates this season.

“I was trying to come in hard for an offensive rebound,” Mathis said. “I don’t know whether it was an elbow or what, but someone’s arm came straight into my nose.”

The Nittany Lions succeeded in adding injury upon injury this season to the Wolverines’ roster. Mathis left and re-entered with a piece of gauze up his nostril.

While the bump on the nose didn’t keep Mathis off the court, some of the other injured Wolverines can’t say the same. Junior Chris Hunter, who sustained an ankle injury at Iowa on Jan. 5, and sophomore Brent Petway — who injured his shoulder against Fairfield last Saturday — did not play Saturday. Hunter has now missed three consecutive games and Petway has missed two.

Fortunately, the Wolverines didn’t have to list anyone else under “inactive” status on Saturday. But the physical nature of the game certainly could not have helped an already depleted squad.

There was a total of 39 personal fouls called, the Wolverines were whistled for 20 of them. Most of those fouls were called on Michigan’s under-manned frontcourt.

Junior Graham Brown, sophomore Courtney Sims and Mathis were the only true big men that saw playing time, and they were put to the test early.

Mathis was slapped with two quick fouls in the first two minutes and Sims received his second with 11:51 left in the first half. The foul trouble left Brown as the only effective post player for most of the game. He was forced to play 37 minutes in his second game since returning from hernia surgery, and he rose to the challenge.

After a sluggish start inside — he shot just 2-for-8 in the first half — Brown finally got rolling and finished with 13 points, one point shy of his career high. He also pulled down 10 rebounds, which tied a career mark.

“I wasn’t finishing there in the first half,” Brown said. “But in the second half, I stepped it up a little bit and started making some shots. I just have to hand it to (the guards) for keeping with me.”

But Brown’s most important contribution didn’t come on the scoreboard. With 23.6 seconds remaining and Michigan up 62-57, Brown stepped in the lane to take a charge from Penn State’s Ben Luber, all but sealing up Michigan’s victory.

“Taking a charge is one of the things that means a lot to me,” Brown said. “It’s one of the key things I always try to do, and it’s just a great feeling being down there and getting that key charge there toward the end of the game.”

Brown collected four personal fouls when he was matched up with Penn State’s Aaron Johnson. The Nittany Lions’ 6-foot-9 bruising forward’s play was also responsible for helping pile up the fouls on Sims and Mathis, who both finished with four personals.

“Aaron Johnson is a very physical player,” Mathis said. “We knew it was going to be a physical game coming into it and be physical down low. So we just tried to be prepared for it and match their intensity or even try to better it.”

The physical bashing that Michigan received may have exposed a weakness. The few remaining active post players could have a difficult time shouldering all the bruising down low for much longer.

“Our guys had to do some really creative and tough and crafty things to kind of battle through to get this win,” Michigan coach Tommy Amaker said.