PITTSBURGH — Set your feet and let it fly.

That was Slippery Rock University's game-plan for its exhibition basketball game against Pitt Sunday afternoon at the Petersen Events Center.

The Rock took 46 shots from beyond the 3-point line, sinking 15 in a 75-64 loss to the Panthers.

"We knew we couldn't go inside against them," SRU coach Kevin Reynolds said. "Besides (6-foot-7) Jade Burka, our entire team was guards.

"As little as we went in the paint, they still blocked six shots in there."

Because it was an exhibition game, statistics and records don't count officially. But Pitt has never sunk more than 14 treys at Petersen Events Center and the record for most 3-point attempts in a game at the facility is 36, set by Lafayette last year.

"They don't have a post guy and we're not gonna play any team like that in our conference," Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. "I liked it. This was something our guys haven't seen.

"Our defenders weren't expecting them to lauch the deep 3's as often as they did. We didn't get a hand in their face too often. We were surprised how quickly they were taking those shots."

SRU had a 23-15 lead with 8:54 left in the first half. The team had already nailed seven 3-pointers by that point.

Pitt took the lead for good when Dwight Miller nailed a trey of his own for a 30-29 edge with 2:55 left in the half. A 13-3 run in the final four minutes of the half gave the Panthers a 40-31 lead at intermission.

Pitt's biggest lead was 61-43 with 10:06 to play, but The Rock cut the gap to 71-64 with 1:30 on the clock.

"When we were up 18, we didn't finish a couple of plays in transition and missed chances to pull away from them," Dixon said. "That's the main thing I addressed our team about after the game."

Dante Taylor, a 6-9 freshman and a McDonald's All-American last year from Greenburgh, N.Y., led the Panthers with 27 points and nine rebounds off the bench. Nasir Robinson was the only other Pitt player in double figures, scoring 11.

"We were a lot bigger than them and with my long arms, I felt like I should have been getting every rebound," Taylor said. "Still, I feel like I did OK out there."

With starting forward Maron Brown getting in early foul trouble, Butler graduate Burka wound up playing 18 minutes. He scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds.

"He (Taylor) is a great player, but I expected more of myself tonight," Burka said. "This was just another game to me. I came down here expecting to win."

Jabril Bailey paced The Rock with 18 points, sinking six treys. Maurice Douglas added 14 points, nailing four 3-pointers.

SRU shot 29 percent from the floor and took 75 shots. Pitt outscored The Rock in the paint, 42-12.

"We averaged in the 80's in shots per game last year," Reynolds said. "That style of play suited us last year and we're going to play that way again.

"I thank Pitt for allowing us to come down and play here. I know they could play any Division II team in the country and I appreciate that they chose us.

"You can't draw anything from a moral victory, but I thought we played pretty well," Reynolds added

SRU played Pitt in an exhibition game at the Petersen Events Center in 2005 and lost 100-42.

"I couldn't believe they out-rebounded us (24-17) in the first half," Dixon said. "I got on our guys about that at halftime and we responded. We out-rebounded them by 13 in the second half.

"Slippery Rock is an experienced, well-coached team. They came in here and played us hard. We had a lot of kids on the floor for the first time today, so that's what we wanted."

Notes: Attendance was 5,815. ... Brown and SRU point guard Andre Tarver fouled out. Pitt is 115-10 all-time at the Petersen Events Center, 41-4 in exhibition games. ... SRU plays another exhibition game Friday at Penn State before opening the regular season Nov. 15 against Ohio University Eastern at Morrow Field House.

SLIPPERY ROCK 64Maron 3-10 3-4 9, Jabril Bailey 6-21 0-0 18, Michael Evans Jr. 2-7 0-0 6, Maurice Douglas 5-13 0-0 14, Andre Tarver 1-8 0-2 3, Cecil Brown 2-7 0-0 5, Bryen Spriggs 0-1 0-0 0, Jade Burka 3-8 2-3 9. Totals 22-75 5-9 64

PITT 75Nasir Robinson 4-8 3-6 11, Gary McGhee 4-7 1-2 9, Travon Woodall 3-6 0-0 6, Ashton Gibbs 2-8 2-2 7, Brad Wanamaker 1-4 6-10 8, Chase Adams 2-5 0-0 4, Dante Taylor 9-11 9-11 27, Lamar Patterson 0-3 0-0 0, Dwight Miller 1-4 0-0 3, J.J. Richardson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-56 21-31 75

Slippery Rock 31 33-64Pittsburgh 40 35-753-point goals: Bailey 6, Evans Jr. 2, Douglas 4, Tarver, Brown, Burka; Gibbs, Miller