Wildcats fade down the stretch yet again in avoidable loss

EVANSTON, Illinois — After rolling over its first two opponents to begin the season, Northwestern built an 11-point halftime lead over Pitt, held an eight-point lead late with 3:43 left and then let the game slip away in the final 10 seconds with what would be the Panthers’ first and only lead of the game.

At this point, it may seem like fate for Wildcat games to end in such a fashion. It was an all-too-familiar feeling from last season, when the ‘Cats blew five games in which they had leads in the final five minutes. Their win probability in those losses were all over 73 percent and as high as 92.8 percent. Wednesday night’s loss took the cake, with a postgame win probability of 93.1…