Embarrassed

MILWAUKEE – This wasn’t quite the comeback Pitt had in mind for Levance Fields.

Pitt’s star… MILWAUKEE – This wasn’t quite the comeback Pitt had in mind for Levance Fields.

Pitt’s star point guard played for the first time since suffering a foot fracture Dec. 29, but Marquette broke Pitt on Friday night, 72-54, in one of Pitt’s worst offensive showings of the season and its worst Big-East regular-season road loss of the Jamie Dixon era.

“This isn’t how I wanted to come back,” Fields said.

Pitt’s first Big-East road loss by more than eight points under Dixon resembled the one at Dayton on the night Fields was injured and did nothing to suggest that the Panthers (19-6, 7-5 Big East) just needed to reinsert Fields into the lineup as a remedy for their recent struggles. Fields had only practiced twice since being cleared to play by doctors and still didn’t look 100 percent to his teammates.

“He wasn’t like his usual self,” Sam Young said. “He was a little sluggish, and we’re still getting used to him being in the lineup.”

Fields, who said after the game that his foot was “85 percent,” played 20 minutes and went 1 for 7 from the floor, scoring four points and committing two turnovers in the loss – the latest chapter of Pitt’s nightmarish tale of playing Marquette (18-6, 8-5) at the Bradley Center. Since Marquette joined the Big East in 2005, the Panthers haven’t beaten Marquette there in three tries.

“I said before the game to my teammates, ‘This is the toughest place to play,'” Young said after scoring a game-high 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting. “Three years in a row now