Men’s Basketball Wins Exhibition against Slippery Rock

Story posted November 7, 2011 in CommRadio, Sports by Chris McKeown

The Penn State men’s basketball team began the Pat Chambers era on Saturday, beating Slippery Rock 66-47 in an exhibition game at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Chambers’ Nittany Lion team was led by junior guard Tim Frazier. He led the team with 19 points and seven assists while playing 37 minutes.

Joining Frazier in the starting lineup were guards Cam Woodyard and Matt Glover and forwards Billy Oliver and John Graham. Chambers worked deep into his bench, however, with 11 players seeing time. The bench combined to score 24 points for Penn State.

“I want to play so hard that they put up a fist and ask to come out,” Chambers said. “That's how hard we want to play. It's very difficult to do that, to play that hard for 40 minutes. We need everybody.”

The key difference in the game was ball control, a byproduct of the hustle emphasized by Chambers. Penn State had 12 offensive rebounds and turned them into 16 second chance points.

The Lions’ hustle made up for a poor shooting night in which the team hit 40 percent of their shots and just 26.9 percent on three-pointers. In addition to great play by Frazier and Oliver, Penn State benefited from Slippery Rock’s crucial mistakes, scoring 24 points off turnovers.

Redshirt junior Billy Oliver looked confident and sharp during the game, hitting four of his eight threes while scoring 16 points.

“All the guys came right up and said keep on shooting, your stroke looks great,” Oliver said. “That's what really helps my confidence.”

Despite the 17 point final margin, the game was competitive well into the second half. Penn State led 34-23 at halftime, but Slippery Rock jumped out of the gate with a four point run to cut the lead to seven.

At the 11:01 mark, Slippery Rock had cut the lead down to 43-49. Chambers decided to switch up the lineup on the floor. The move proved effective, as the Nittany Lions embarked on a 19-2 run that would leave them with a 62-41with 2:44 to go.

“In the second half, I just didn't like the way we came out,” Chambers said. “I didn't like our approach. So, I sent four guys in, and we tried, but it wasn't exactly what we wanted. But, we're getting there.”

“We made some mistakes, but that's okay. As long as you see some effort and some energy and some enthusiasm out there, we're taking the right steps.”

Penn State’s season opener will be on Saturday, November 12 at the Bryce Jordan Center against Hartford. The time of the game is yet to be announced. The game can be heard on ComRadio at psucomradio.com.

Chris McKeown is currently a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism. He can be contacted at csm5206@psu.edu.