Lamar Patterson Leads Team To Greentree Summer League Title

Those heading to Greentree to catch a glimpse of Steven Adams in the finale were a bit disappointed last week as the big man didn't play. But they still saw another great performance by Pitt's fastest rising star - Lamar Patterson.

Patterson, who's dominated in the summer league games, had another big performance in leading his team to the championship on Wednesday. He was only 5-22 from the field, but was 4-9 from three-point range and had a game-high 27 points. How does one get to 27 points making only five shot? By getting to the line, of course. Patterson made 13 of his 14 free throws, so that explains things a bit.

He made a big shot late in the game to tie the score and he's hoping that will translate into regular season heroics:

"I wanted to take more game shots that I've been working on in the summer time and translate it into the season," he said. "Coach Dixon is always preaching to take the open shots, and I'm just trying to do that more and more."

Tray Woodall also says Patterson could be in for a breakout season:

"I knew he would do this," Woodall said. "In years past, Lamar would just play his role. This is going to be the year for him to break out. It could have happened last year, but we had Ashton [Gibbs] playing that role. Now Lamar is going to be that guy. It's going to be up to us to set him up for that."

I said that very thing over at SB Nation Pittsburgh a few weeks ago and Patterson's play in the summer league just makes that more and more likely.

Be sure to join Cardiac Hill's Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @PittPantherBlog for our regular updates on Pitt football and basketball.