Despite a brilliant 29-point effort from Ashton Gibbsâ€"playing primarily shooting guard for the first time since Tray Woodall's injuryâ€"Pitt could not break their losing skid, falling 62-57 on the road at Marquette.
Gibbs scored more than half of Pitt's points, and added one rebound, two assists and no turnovers for the Panthers, but it wasn't enough to prevent a sixth consecutive loss and an 0-5 start in Big East Conference play.
If anything could really snap Pitt out of their recent winless streak, it was pulling off an upset against 25th-ranked Marquette. For part of the game, it didn’t seem like such a tall order. The Panthers looked like their pre-skid selves again in the first half, exhibiting strong defense and getting needed rebounds. But the Golden Eagles were prepared in the second half, forcing turnovers and scoring 38 points to take enough of a lead to extend Pitt’s losing streak to six.
Pitt got on the board first, thanks to a jumper by Ashton Gibbs in the first minute. A dunk by Nasir Robinson heightened the lead to 4-0 before Marquette could add any points. Jae Crowder made a three-pointer to put Marquette in the game, but Pitt kept a comfortable lead for the rest of the half, going 5-7 on free-throws and adding 7 second-chance points. Nasir Robinson had 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists as Pitt led 29-24 at the half.
In the second half, Marquette started strong, scoring 14 unanswered points to take the lead, which Pitt could never quite take back. Ashton Gibbs made 6 free-throws, but Marquette’s 11 points on 10 turnovers and 11 fastbreak points were too much for the Pitt defense.
Junior Cadougan led the Golden Eagles with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals.
Pitt’s next game is against top-ranked Syracuse in the Carrier Dome on Monday.
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