BUFFALO, N.Y. — Everybody loves to root for the underdog.

Everybody but the Michigan Wolverines, who found themselves in tighter-than-expected battle over the first 25 minutes in their No. 1 seed versus No. 16 seed matchup.

Michigan, the top seed in the Midwest Region, eventually put its foot on the gas and pulled away in the second half for a 101-80 romp over Howard at KeyBank Center in Thursday’s first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Morez Johnson Jr. had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Aday Mara had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Michigan (31-4), which shot a season-best 67.3% from the field and made 69% of its shots after halftime.

Michigan will face the winner between No. 8 seed Georgia and No. 9 seed Saint Louis in a second-round matchup on Saturday. Game time and TV designation are to be determined.

The Wolverines led 50-46 at halftime despite a nearly perfect offensive first half due to Howard making 10 3-pointers to keep close.

Michigan turned to Johnson, who scored 12 of the team’s first 15 points in the second half, to start creating some separation. He had an and-1 finish. After the Wolverines forced a turnover on a 10-second backcourt violation, Johnson scored at the rim off a lob pass from Mara.

Johnson kept having his way against Howard’s defense. He added a corner 3-pointer and capped his torrid stretch with two more buckets inside to give Michigan a 65-56 lead.

The Wolverines continued to widen the margin by stringing together shots and stops. Elliot Cadeau drained a 3-pointer from straightaway. Yaxel Lendeborg muscled his way to the rim for a layup. Roddy Gayle Jr. capped a 12-1 surge and a stretch of 10 straight made shots with a corner 3-pointer to make it 77-59 with 12:35 to play.

Another 17-1 burst keyed by Mara, who either scored or assisted on nearly every basket, put the game out of reach. He dished an assist to Johnson for a dunk and threw an outlet pass to Trey McKenney for a fast-break layup. He threw down three dunks in a row. The Wolverines blew it open, 94-65, with 5:10 remaining.

Michigan led by as much as 31 points down the stretch before it began emptying the bench in the final minutes and coasting to the finish line.

Nimari Burnett scored 15 and made three of Michigan’s 11 3-pointers. Gayle finished with 14 of the team’s 32 bench points before fouling out late.

Bryce Harris and Cam Gillus scored 21 each and Cedric Taylor III added 19 for Howard (24-11), which swept the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles. The Bison made a season-high 14 3-pointers but went 4 for 13 from deep after halftime, were outrebounded by a 35-23 margin and never led.

Howard – playing for the second time in three days after beating UMBC in a First Four matchup on Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, for its first March Madness win in program history – entered Thursday’s tilt as 30.5-point underdogs but certainly didn’t look like it in the first half.

After winning the opening tip, Cadeau threw a lob pass to Mara for an alley-oop dunk eight seconds into the game. The Wolverines knocked down their first three 3-pointers, with Lendeborg, Gayle and Burnett all knocking one down. Michigan took a 16-6 lead with 13:41 left in the first half.

Howard couldn’t get anything going against Michigan’s switching defense early on, often settling for contested 3-pointers and mid-range jumpers. The Bison missed eight of their first 11 field goals before shots kept dropping on both sides.

After missing its first five attempts from 3-point range, Howard started to catch fire from deep and went 10 for 11 from beyond the arc the rest of the half. That blazing stretch started with four 3-pointers within the span of two minutes to cut the deficit to 24-20 at the 10:21 mark.

Howard didn’t have many answers for Michigan on the defensive end, as the Wolverines got off to a 9-for-12 shooting start, kept rolling and shot 65.4% from the field in the opening 20 minutes. After Howard’s fifth 3-pointer made it a three-point game, Will Tschetter answered with a deep ball. Then after Howard’s sixth 3-pointer of the half cut it to four, Tschetter responded again with another 3 to make it 34-26 at the 6:57 mark.

But Howard kept knocking down outside shots to stick around. After McKenney buried a 3-pointer and a turnaround jumper to make it 45-34 with 2:30 left in the half, Howard hit its eighth 3-pointer to pull within six.

Then after an and-1 layup from Burnett gave the Wolverines a 50-39 advantage, a four-point play from Gillus, a Michigan turnover and Howard’s 10th 3-pointer from Harris that beat the buzzer cut it to 50-46 at the break.

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