83 - 74 
After a disastrous start to the season with an upset loss to St. Francis, the Pitt men’s basketball team rebounded for an 83-74 win over Drexel on Saturday.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
‘Rebounded’ isn’t a great word there as the Panthers were actually beaten on the boards, 29-26. But that was largely due to going with a smaller lineup as Terrell Brown did not play and freshman big man John Hugley played only ten minutes.
The Panthers did not need the rebounding, it turns out. That’s because they shot a blistering 62% from the field. That was a stark contrast to the opener when the team connected on fewer than 40% of their shots.
Leading the way was Xavier Johnson, who scored 27 points and dished out eight assists while grabbing eight rebounds. Just as importantly, Johnson drastically cut his turnovers on Saturday with only three of them while shooting 9-13 from the field and making all six of his free throws.
Pitt played much better today but I’m still not sure what we’ll see out of this team this year. I don’t expect them to shoot as poorly as they did in that St. Francis game but also think they won’t keep the pace of today’s hot shooting, either. Not much of a surprise here but this team will lie somewhere in between.
Pitt now has an 11-day break until their next game, traveling to Northwestern for their ACC-Big Ten matchup on December 9.
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