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ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- There would be no easing into the season opener for Michigan. The Wolverines were held scoreless for over five minutes at the beginning of their game against Howard.Ive been coaching a long time, and what Howard did defensively, was something, I dont recall seeing it, actually, Michigan coach John Beilein said. Its an aggressive matchup zone, and theyre taking things away, and theyre really flying around with great quickness.The Wolverines eventually overcame that tough defense. Derrick Walton scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half, and Michigan fought through a poor shooting night to beat Howard 76-58 on Friday.The Wolverines ended up shooting just 42 percent from the field. The Bison trailed 41-36 with under 12 minutes remaining in the game before Michigan asserted itself.Mark Donnal scored 12 points for Michigan, and Zak Irvin added 11.Damon Collins scored 12 points for Howard, which was without guard James Daniel, the nations leading scorer last season. He is expected to miss about another month with a high ankle sprain.Free throws helped boost Michigans margin in a foul-filled game. The Wolverines went 23 of 26 from the line, while Howard was just 14 of 29.Were so used to Daniel making that play for us, Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry said. Hes an 80 percent free-throw shooter. He makes big 3s. ... Weve got to get used to, those moments are not just his moments anymore. For six or seven games, its their moments.Michigans scoreless stretch to open the game was finally broken when Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman made a couple 3-pointers. The Wolverines led 34-25 at halftime.It was 41-36 when Howards Solomon Mangham missed two free throws. Irvin made a jumper at the other end, and Michigan slowly began extending the lead. It was 49-38 after a 3-pointer by Irvin.BIG PICTUREHoward: The Bison were picked to win the MEAC in a preseason poll of coaches and sports information directors, and they did a good job staying in the game against Michigan despite Daniels absence.Michigan: It wasnt the prettiest game, but perhaps thats not the worst thing for the Wolverines, who are trying to improve their defense this season and show they can grind out wins even when their offense isnt clicking.ENERGYDonnal had six rebounds to go along with his dozen points, and fellow backup D.J. Wilson had nine points and eight rebounds.Thats our job, is be energy guys off the bench, Donnal said. D.J. did a good job of getting a few offensive rebounds and keeping a lot of plays alive.NEW ADDITIONSMichigan announced the signing of guard Eli Brooks (Spring Grove, Pennsylvania), forward Isaiah Livers (Kalamazoo, Michigan) and guard Jordan Poole (Milwaukee) to letters of intent for 2017-18.UP NEXTHoward: The Bison take on Marquette on Monday night in Milwaukee. That game -- along with the Howard-Michigan game -- is part of the 2K Classic, which benefits Wounded Warrior Project.Michigan: The Wolverines host IUPUI on Sunday in another 2K Classic game.---For more college basketball: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25---Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister Mike Singletary Jersey Mike Ditka Bears Jersey . Shot outdoors against the stunning backdrop of Banff, Alta., the networks 30-minute original production airs tonight at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2. The four All-Star teams will play for $100,000 in prize money during TSNs annual skins game, airing live this weekend on TSN from The Fenlands Banff Recreation Centre. http://www.bearsrookiestore.com/Bears-Riley-Ridley-Jersey/ . Coach Tom Thibodeau says the former MVP will probably start travelling with the team in the next few weeks. Rose tore the meniscus in his right knee at Portland in November and was ruled out for the remainder of the season by the Bulls. Riley Ridley Bears Jersey . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. Gale Sayers Womens Jersey . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. For the three drivers whose championship hopes ended with hard crashes, they will have to, at some point, turn the page on 2016.It wont be easy, especially for the two drivers whose last taste of racing ended in bitter disappointment with a damaged car.Matt Kenseth had already appeared to put his Phoenix International Raceway wreck with Alex Bowman behind him. He had the advantage of racing another week, in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, to erase the memory of getting knocked out of the Chase a week earlier.For Joey Logano and Carl Edwards, they will have to wait three months to race again after their hard crash going for the lead with 10 laps left at Homestead in the Ford EcoBoost 400 on Nov. 20, resulting in neither winning the title.I honestly dont want to look back on it, Edwards admitted on Dec. 1, a day prior to the Sprint Cup awards banquet. Its still a little too soon. ... Its one of those things that you just dont really want to talk about. It was truly heartbreaking. Thats the way it is. Thats the truth.While complimented by the media about the way he handled it on the track, Edwards said his family tried to avoid the topic at Thanksgiving.At Thanksgiving, there was a real absence of talk about it and it gave me the weird feeling like before I got there, people [possibly] were like, Hey dont mention it, Edwards said. I was like, Guys, its not that bad. That was a little awkward. Nobody at Thanksgiving said a word.Both Edwards and Logano attributed their wreck to hard racing, with Logano needing to dart to the inside to get the lead on the restart and Edwards knowing that Logano had a better short-run car and that could have been the championship.Logano actually rallied to finish second among the Chase finalists to champion Jimmie Johnson. He said he was proud of his season but it wasnt the success of winning the championship.Its always going to sting until you win, Logano said. Losing sucks. I dont know what else to tell you. Its always going to be that way. It better be that way.Second-place trophies are garbage, in my opinion. ... I was over it until I get here [to the banquet]. You come to events like this and you watch everyone up there -- you want to be up there getting the trophies.The wrecks appeared somewhat similar in that they could be viewed as unsuccessful blocks by the leader. But Kenseth stressed he wasnt trying to block -- that hiis lane was initially clear before Kyle Busch ran into the back of Bowman, thrusting him in the lane that Kenseths spotter had said was clear.ddddddddddddIt was a tough loss, Kenseth said. It was probably tougher than losing the Daytona 500 in the second-to-the-last corner. But once its over, its over. I tried to look back and see what I could have done different, and honestly thought I did everything I could do.Kenseth continued to be philosophical, saying he controlled what he could control and moved on.I was clear when I pulled to the bottom and he drove into the corner about four car lengths farther than I did, Kenseth said. Between the 88 [of Bowman] blocking the 18 [of Kyle Busch] all the way down to the inside wall and the 18 jacking him up because he needed that spot for the championship, it just shoved him right through me.I could have entered in the third groove and Im pretty sure I still would have got wiped out.The others, especially Edwards, still seemed to have a hard time understanding how what could have been so right went woefully wrong.I never had that emotion before, Edwards said. [My crew chief] Dave [Rogers] described it really well. He said it was the first time in his life he ever had that feeling like, Whoa, this isnt real.That was the toughest part -- I felt like we had the race under control. ... All of a sudden were in the fence and it all went badly. It was tough. It happened very quickly.Edwards said he watched some replays and doesnt know what he could have done differently.No regrets, Edwards said. Thats just the way it went.Logano echoed that sentiment.We did everything we could do, Logano said. We put ourselves in position to make it happen and we came up a little bit short. You can look at the circumstances a lot of different ways, but theres no regrets.While Edwards said he enjoyed the race -- That was really a lot of fun -- up until the wreck, Edwards said -- he said he expects the experience will toughen him and make winning a championship even more special.Its a very personal thing, Edwards said. I put my best effort in, my crew put their best effort in and we didnt get the result that we wanted to. ... It was hard for me, personally, to accept that outcome after that performance. But thats the way it is. ' ' '