EVANSTON, Ill. - After another game where he struggled and forced shots, Michigan basketball junior guard Manny Harris had enough.

He told reporters after Michigan lost to Northwestern, 67-52, on Tuesday to drop to .500 and two games under .500 in the Big Ten that he plans to return to Ann Arbor for his senior year.

“A lot of these guys gotta come back, you know what I’m saying, like myself, gotta come back and play next year,” Harris told reporters in the visiting locker room after he scored 11 points on 14 shots against the Wildcats.

Harris started the season as almost a sure-fire lock to declare early for the NBA Draft. He impressed NBA players, coaches and scouts at camps over the summer and was on preseason watch lists for every major award.

While he is averaging 18.7 points and 6.5 rebounds a game, the 6-foot-5 guard’s production has slipped. He hasn’t shot 50 percent in a game since Jan. 14 against Indiana (five games ago) and is shooting 28.3 percent from the 3-point line. In five of the past six games, he has more turnovers than assists.

Homecoming spoiled Freshmen guards Josh Bartelstein and Matt Vogrich hoped to return to their hometown and see minutes in a resounding victory that would have shifted focus from a disappointing season.

Neither got what they hoped. Vogrich played eight minutes and was held scoreless. Bartelstein, a walk-on, played three minutes and missed his only shot.

Bartelstein played two high school games in Welsh-Ryan Arena, grew up 15 minutes away, has seen between 10 and 20 games in Welsh-Ryan and had close to 100 people in attendance to see him play the final three minutes of the game.

“It was cool, just growing up here and playing so many games here, it really meant something to me,” Bartelstein said. “I wish I was in because we were winning but what are you going to do.

“It has special meaning to me, for sure.”

Vogrich, who has seen up-and-down time this year, had a bunch of people from Lake Forest (Ill.) high school show up.

“It was nice coming home,” Vogrich said. “I feel like I’m close to home anyway with all these Big Ten games but my high school coach was there, college coach was there. It was just good to see everybody.”

DeShawn Sims struggles If there is any team in the Big Ten that may have figured out how to deal with senior forward DeShawn Sims, it is Northwestern.

Michigan couldn’t get the ball inside to Sims during the second half of Northwestern’s 68-62 win over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. And for almost the entire game Sims could barely get the ball in position to score.

He finished with four points - tying a season-low - and was constantly double-teamed in the post.

“He had a rough night,” Michigan coach John Beilein said.

Part of that had to do with Northwestern sophomore center Luka Mirkovic, who guarded Sims for the second straight game. The rest had to do with Northwestern help in the 2-3 matchup zone and the 1-3-1 zone.

“They locked in and played great defense,” Sims said. “And I wasn’t able to get the shots that I’ve been hitting in the past.”

This and that Northwestern swept Michigan for the first time since the 1966-67 season, when both coaches - Northwestern’s Bill Carmody and Beilein - were teenagers. … Sophomore walk-on Corey Person scored his first career point on a free throw in mop-up duty. ... At one point in the second half, due to a scoreboard malfunction, Northwestern led Michigan, 61-4. … The crowd in Welsh-Ryan Arena was almost 50-50 with Michigan and Northwestern fans.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.