Chris Hunter tossed in a career-high 22 points as Michigan fought through a gutsy effort from High Point to down the Panthers, 67-53, Tuesday night at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor.

The Panthers, who were playing their seventh game in a 13-day stretch, drop to 2-6 on the season, while Michigan improves to 5-3.

Titus Byrd led the Panthers with a career-best 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range. Zione White tallied 10 points, all in the second half. Danny Gathings added 10 points while Issa Konaré provided eight points and eight boards.

Michigan, which shot 52 percent from the floor to High Point's 36 percent, held a slim 31-29 edge on the boards. The Panthers had more offensive boards than the taller Wolverines (15-10).

Akeem Scott provided a team-best four assists for the Panthers.

Despite making just two of its first 12 shots, High Point hung around early. Byrd scored the first five points for the Panthers, who were shut out for a six-minute stretch early in the first half but stormed back to pull within 18-16 on a layup by Konare with 7:43 to play before intermission.

Playing without leading scorer Daniel Horton and a pair of regular starters in Lester Abram and Graham Brown, the Wolverines got a monster first half from Hunter, who surpassed his career-high before halftime. Michigan went on a 10-2 run and grabbed a 30-19 lead on a jumper by Ron Coleman before back-to-back threes by Gathings and Byrd pulled the Panthers within 30-25 with 1:56 to play in the half. The teams trotted to the locker room seperated by just five points (32-27).

Michigan scored 10 of the first 14 points of the final stanza to surge to its largest lead at 42-31 following a trey by John Andrews (10 points). But the Panthers refused to go away, chipping away at the deficit and pulling within 50-45 on a three-pointer by White with 10:08 to go.

The Wolverines, who beat the Panthers 84-49 last season, responded with a 9-1 run to push the lead back to double-digits (55-45) following Hunter's final bucket of the game with 6:54 to go. HPU was unable to pull within nine the rest of the way.

High Point returns home Saturday night to host Furman in the Millis Center (7:00 pm).