There is no way to measure the heart and guts of a player.

LaVell Blanchard led the Wolverines in the first half before turning his ankle with a little under three minutes to go. His teammates picked up the slack in the second half when he was unable to compete, leading Michigan (17-11, 10-5 Big Ten) to a 78-62 victory over the Nittany Lions (6-20, 1-14) last night at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Blanchard rolled his ankle as he scored his 13th point of the first half. Playing through the injury, he added three more points before the half ended. He struggled through the second half for seven minutes before Michigan men's basketball coach Tommy Amaker decided to rest his star.

"He's a warrior and he tried to play on his bad ankle," Bernard Robinson Jr. said. "He carried us in the first half, making big shot after big shot. In the second half, we had to pick him up."

Robinson did just that, scoring 11 of his 17 points in the second half. He cut through the weak Penn State defense, hitting both jumpers and lay-ups alike. But it was not just Robinson who terrorized the Lions in the second stanza. It was a total team effort, as the Wolverines shot a staggering 70 percent from the field. Michigan finished with five players in double figures.

The Lions showed signs of life in the first, as Jan Jagla scored 13 of his 15 points before the half.

Penn State played the entire second half without the services of DeForrest Riley, who is continuing to suffer from tendinitis. Riley didn't score in 15 minutes of action.

Freshman walk-on Aaron Johnson jump-started Penn State's offense, scoring the first nine points of the second half.

Six points was as close as the Lions could get in the second half, when Sharif Chambliss buried a three-pointer, cutting the lead to 46-40. Every time Penn State appeared to get back in the game, the Wolverines extended the lead.

Michigan ended any hopes the Lions had left as Robinson drove in transition along the left baseline and dunked over Jagla.

"A couple times we were in mismatches in transition," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said. "You're going to have defensive transitions, where bigs are matched up against perimeter people. It's an awfully tough match-up for anyone."

The Lions have battled during several games this season, but continue to fall just short and last night the trend continued.

"That's how the season's been," Johnson said. "It's just been almost there. We need to stop saying that, almost, it's got to get done."