COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Despite holding a three-point lead with 92 seconds left, the Buckeyes went cold late and dropped their fourth game in a row to end the regular season on Saturday.

No. 4 Illinois (20-6, 16-4 Big Ten) avenged its Jan. 16 loss to No. 7 Ohio State (18-8, 12-8) by finishing with a 9-0 run in the final 2:13 to beat the Buckeyes 73-68 at the Schottenstein Center.

Illinois guard Ayo Dosunmu, who missed the past several games for the Illini with a facial fracture, scored six of the final nine points and finished with 19 for the game.

“I thought collectively we had poor ball screen defense there against Ayo late, and I think some of that was affected by our offense,” Ohio State head coach Chris Holtmann said. “A couple guys disappointed about their decision-making.”

Illinois guard Da’Monte Williams tied the game 68-68 with a 3 with 1:31 on the clock, and after a missed 3 from Ohio State forward Kyle Young on the other end, Dosunmu converted an and-one on a dribble drive.

Ohio State sophomore forward E.J. Liddell, who led Ohio State with 19 points on Saturday, nailed a 3 from the wing to push Ohio State ahead 63-59 with 5:27 left, and he did it again at 3:46, this time from the top of the arc to keep the Buckeyes up 68-64.

But the Buckeyes wouldn’t score again, missing their last 10 shots of the game.

“We just missed some tough shots towards the end, I feel like we just needed better poise going into the end of that stretch," Ohio State redshirt senior guard CJ Walker said. "But other than that, I feel like we got good looks, we just got to make them towards the end. We just gotta finish games better.”

After trailing at halftime, the Buckeyes began the second half with a 6-0 run to take a 43-41 lead courtesy of a transition layup from Walker following a steal on the other end.

Illinois responded to take a five-point lead thereafter, but Walker tied things up once again at the 10:52 mark with a 3 off the dribble to make it 50-50.

Despite being outshot by 20 percent from the floor in the first half, an offensive rebound and putback from Liddell with five seconds left allowed the Buckeyes to go into halftime down just four points.

Illinois shot 62.1 percent in the opening 20 minutes, as Dosunmu and sophomore center Kofi Cockburn connected on 10 of their 12 shot attempts to combine for 21 points, leading the Illini to a 41-37 advantage at intermission.

Offensive production was largely a two-man act for the Buckeyes early on, as junior guard Duane Washington and redshirt junior forward Justice Sueing combined for 20 of the first 22 points for Ohio State.

Washington missed his final five shots of the game though, and despite scoring 15 points, shot just 6-for-18 from the field.

“He’s gotta play with more poise in those situations, and he will,” Holtmann said. “I thought he played with really good poise throughout the game, but we gotta help him with that. He’s gotta make better decisions there late.”

Liddell missed his first five shot attempts of the game, and two missed free throws from the Buckeyes’ star forward with less than three minutes to go helped ignite a quick Illini run that put them up nine points with 1:09 to play in the half.

The 3-point shooting of Ohio State, which came alive in the final few minutes of the half, helped keep the Buckeyes in the game despite the overall shooting percentage disparity.

Junior forward Justin Ahrens and Liddell hit three triples in the final 4:11 of the half, and Ohio State hit six total in the opening period while Illinois hit just 1-for-6 from deep.

Illinois freshman guard Andre Curbelo scored 11 points of his own in the first half, giving the Fighting Illini three double-digit scorers before halftime. Curbelo finished with 19 points for the game.

With the loss, Ohio State will next take the court on Thursday in Indianapolis as the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.