N EW YORK — In a sparsely populated Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, the Oakland Zoo, confined to a small corner section, made itself right at home yelling and establishing a presence among a crowd largely dominated by opposing fans.

And for the majority of its game, the Pitt basketball team did as much on the court.

Since the 2000-2001 season, the Panthers had gone 28-14 at the fabled New York City arena, and it looked as though they might make it 29 victories with how they aggressively played early on against No. 4 Michigan at the N.I.T. Tipoff Semifinal game.

But over the course of the game against the Wolverines and its star guard Trey Burke, the Panthers withered, eventually losing 67-62 — their first loss of the season.

In a matchup that Michigan head coach John Beilein would describe metaphorically afterward as “big man basketball” the absence of literal big men would become clear for Pitt when it mattered most.

The Panthers (3-1) got outrebounded by 11, and this inability to extend plays limited their number of second chance opportunities in a game of extremely thin margins — neither team ever led by double figures.

Eight players scored for Pitt in the first half, and it edged in front to take a 33-29 lead at intermission.

The low scoring nature of the contest didn’t surprise Michigan head coach John Beilein.

“We sort of anticipated that hard-fought defensive struggle,” he said.

As such, Michigan needed to focus on a couple of areas.

“It was important for us to get as physical down low and on the boards with them as possible,” Beilein said.

Pitt’s early success forced Michigan to adjust defensively.

“We were really having trouble with the pick and roll action,” Beilein said. “The biggest thing was it puts them in position to offensive rebound. In the first half, if they did miss they had a putback, so we thought we’d maybe take them out of some rhythm.”

A 1-3-1 zone was implemented to clog up the area near the basket and impede Pitt’s ability to gather offensive rebounds.

“It’s a thing you have to go to at certain times just to change tempo,” Belein said.

Pitt managed only two offensive rebounds in the second half and six total. The neutralization of any sort of inside presence was something Michigan aimed to accomplish.

“[Coming into tonight], Pitt was winning games off of offensive rebounding,” Belein said. “They always have been very good at that.”

In the beginning, Burke did it all for the Wolverines (4-0), using his blistering speed to create for himself off the dribble. The sophomore scored nine points in the first half.

His prominence would force attention away from his teammates later in the game, a crucial development.

Pitt managed to keep the Wolverines at bay until midway through the second period, when after tying the game at 44 with 9:27 left — the first time they hadn’t trailed in nearly 14 and a half minutes — they wouldn’t trail again.

Sensing an opening, the Pro-Michigan crowd woke from its slumber and got behind the rallying team.

Over the rest of the game Pitt would try and catch up but couldn’t quite do so.

Lamar Patterson, who led the Panthers with 14 points, said they need to improve their fortitude.

“We’ve got to get tougher,” Patterson said.

Freshman point guard James Robinson agreed.

“I definitely think we need to play a lot harder,” Robinson said.

Trey Burke would finish with 17 points.

He had help in the second half though, as three of his teammates would finish in double digits. One of those teammates was Hardaway Jr., who scored 11 of his 16 points in the second half, beginning when he tied the game and continuing as he helped to maintain the team’s subsequent lead.

Hardaway Jr. credited Burke for finding him and his other teammates when Pitt began to key on him.

“They were collapsing here and there, and Trey did a good job of just kicking it out,” Hardaway Jr. said.

After Pitt lost its advantage the team had to change mindsets.

“Once they went up we knew we had to get in attack mode,” Robinson said.

Down five with just under half a minute left, Robinson illustrated his aggressive mindset. Scoring three consecutive times and cutting to lead to as many each time he drove to the basket, but that’s as close as the comeback would get. And instead, its opponents were the ones escaping still undefeated.

“We did just enough to win the game,” Beilein said.

Pitt will play Delaware in a consolation game at 2:30 p.m. Friday. Delaware lost to Kansas State, 66-63, in another semifinal.