Men’s Basketball: D. Johnson, Taylor excel in last-second victory at Greentree

The Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am summer league began its final week of regular-season… The Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am summer league began its final week of regular-season action on July 9, and the hundreds of fans who once again showed up at the Greentree SportsPlex enjoyed three back-and-forth matchups involving several members of the Pitt men’s basketball team.

Steel City Tickets 78, SPK Law 77

Prior to Monday’s game against SPK, Steel City Tickets held a 0-4 record in the summer league despite a string of solid performances by Pitt redshirt freshman Durand Johnson.

Displaying a potentially explosive scoring touch, Johnson wowed during each of his team’s losses.

But this time, no one was stopping Johnson.

After watching his team trail for nearly the entire game, Johnson scored on a reverse layup with four seconds left in the game to give his team its first win of the summer league.

Johnson, who scored 18 points with five rebounds and six assists, said he thought he played well in the game but still has plenty of room for improvement.

“I think I played good. I could definitely play a lot better, though,” Johnson said. “I missed a few shots, and I missed a few free throws, so I’m going to work on that for the next game on Wednesday.”

Pitt senior Dante Taylor also turned in a solid performance for Steel City Tickets, scoring 18 points with 18 rebounds to notch his first double-double of the league’s regular season. Pitt redshirt junior Talib Zanna scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds for SPK Law, who fell to 1-4.

PGT Trucking 67, Oliverio’s Peppers 56

PGT, a team consisting primarily of Pitt players, once again showed that it might be the league’s most talented team as it improved its record to 4-1.

After falling behind 7-0 early in the game, PGT stormed back with an 18-0 run shortly after and held the lead for the remainder of the contest.

Incoming Pitt freshman Steven Adams, a consensus top-five recruit, scored 11 points with 11 rebounds despite committing a large number of fouls. Fellow incoming Panther freshman James Robinson displayed a steady presence on the floor, scoring eight points and adding three assists.

Robinson, who was ranked as one of the top point guards in the nation coming out of high school, said he thought he played well even though PGT temporarily lost its focus during the game.

“We’ll take the win any way we can get it,” Robinson said. “We kind of let them back into it, especially in the second half, but we were fortunate to get the win.”

Pitt redshirt junior Lamar Patterson added 16 points and eight rebounds, and Trey Zeigler, an offseason transfer for Pitt from Central Michigan University, scored 15 points for PGT.

Zanna, playing in his second game of the night, scored nine points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Oliverio’s Peppers.

South Hills Audi 85, UPMC 80

During his time at Pitt, Levance Fields was known as a player who picked his teammates up when they needed him the most. His step-back 3-pointer at the buzzer that clinched victory for the Panthers against Duke at Madison Square Garden in 2007 remains one of the more memorable moments in recent Pitt basketball history.

On Monday night, Fields returned to Pittsburgh to lead South Hills Audi, a team made up of alumni from Pitt and other local colleges, to a narrow victory over UPMC.

Fields, who scored 23 points and added six assists, said he cherished the opportunity to play with some of his former teammates like Gilbert Brown, Keith Benjamin and John DeGroat.

“I had some fun with some old teammates, and that’s all I really wanted to do,” Fields said.

DeGroat added 20 points and 10 rebounds for South Hills Audi, while Brown and Benjamin scored 15 and 10 points, respectively.

The Pittsburgh Basketball Club Pro-Am summer league regular season concludes on July 11 at Greentree with three games beginning at 7 p.m.