Freshman Dante Taylor scored a game-high 27 points as the Pittsburgh Panthers claimed a 75-64 exhibition win over NCAA Division II Slippery Rock Sunday at the Petersen Events Center, Sunday evening.
Taylor, Pitt's prized recruit, scored 16 of his 27 points in the first half and also grabbed a game high 9 rebounds.
Forward Nasir Robinson added 11 points for Pitt. Freshman Lamar Patterson was pointless in eight minutes played.
Pitt held Slippery Rock to 29.3 percent field goal shooting but Slippery Rock proved to be a tough out for Pitt as Slippery Rock controlled out rebounded Pitt in the 1st half.
“I thought the biggest surprise was rebounding," Jamie Dixon said. I couldn’t believe that we were being out rebounded at the half. That was something that we really stressed at halftime. We finished the game outrebounding them by 13, so I thought it was good that we responded.
There were a couple of plays that we didn’t finish, just some careless passes on transition plays where we didn’t do what we needed to do to pull away. I think the main thing is that we will be a better team in our next game. This was a good game to see where we are at. We have a lot of guys playing where it was their first time out there. It’s all about improvement.
I thought that Slippery Rock played hard. They are a difficult team to play, just with some of the switches that they do. They are very experienced and very well-coached. I think Coach Reynolds has done a great job with them."
Pitt's first regular season game is Friday, November. 13 against Wofford at the Petersen Events Center.
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