It looked like another one of those games for Ohio State junior guard Duane Washington through the first five minutes of NCAA Tournament play; a red-hot start that mirrored the momentum he’d found in the Big Ten Tournament last weekend.

By the end of the game it was the other Washington that reared his head though, going ice cold for most of the final 40 minutes to reinforce questions about his consistency that have often plagued his Ohio State career in Friday’s tournament-opening overtime upset.

Washington missed 14 of his final 17 shots against No. 15 seed Oral Roberts, including an attempt to win the game at the buzzer in regulation, and a wide open look from the top of the arc to tie it at the final buzzer in overtime. Along the way, Washington missed two crucial free throws in OT, and was one of three different Buckeyes to turn the ball over three times in the second half alone.

“Again, it comes back to some of his decision-making,” head coach Chris Holtmann said. “Listen, he had some clean looks. He had two really clean looks there late that I believe he’s gonna make, that he’s made a lot of. One off an action out of a timeout and the other one off of the offensive rebound there late. Maybe he was pressing a little bit.”

The Buckeyes became the ninth No. 2 seed to get upset by a No. 15 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday in West Lafayette, Indiana, losing 75-72 to the Golden Eagles in the third overtime game they’ve played in the past four contests.

RECAP: Music ends as Buckeye big dance is over

Washington hit his first four shots in a row to start things off at Mackey Arena, including three consecutive 3-pointers to score 11 of Ohio State’s first 13 points against an Oral Roberts team that possessed a sneakily explosive offense coming in.

With such a quick start, few could’ve seen such a dramatic downturn coming for Washington, who went just 3-for-17 from the field the rest of the way to finish 7-for-21 with 18 points on the day.

“This was Duane’s first –– along with other guys –– this was their first real experience in the pressure of an NCAA Tournament. Maybe there were some things I could have done better to kind of relax him, because I thought he played uncharacteristically maybe a little too wound up,” Holtmann said.

After his initial burst, which ended with a 3-point make at the 15:25 mark of the first half, Washington did not hit another shot until 6:57 remained to play in the second.

Ten second-half turnovers and next to no success from the 3-point line prevented Ohio State from getting up on the Golden Eagles, who led 36-33 at halftime, but when Washington hit a tough floater on the baseline with 3:13 to play in the second half, the Buckeyes had a 63-60 lead.

Four-straight Oral Roberts free throws in the final 1:07 tied the game 64-all, but with 14 seconds to play, the Buckeyes would still have one last look to win it.

It was no surprise that Washington took the shot, despite not being particularly in-rhythm at that point, but the shot selection was head-scratching. With 6-foot-1 Max Abmas guarding him, Washington elected to shoot a stepback fadeaway with a foot on the 3-point line, and the attempt came up short.

The Buckeyes looked dead in the water down six points with 2:10 to play in overtime a couple minutes later, but after a Washington and-one, Ohio State had new life. When he went to the free throw line on the very next possession to cut the Oral Roberts lead to one point though, the 85 percent free-throw shooter missed them both.

After all that, Ohio State still had a shot to potentially tie the game on the final possession of overtime. As fate would have it, even after a heavily contested attempt from Justin Ahrens clanked off the iron, the rebound found its way out to Washington, who stood wide open at the top of the 3-point arc.

But like most of his shots on Friday, the game-tying attempt misfired, and the Buckeyes’ season came to a heart-wrenching close.

“He had some clean looks that he missed and then he had a couple poor decisions,” Holtmann said. “But again, Duane is a guy that’s been such a terrific player for us all year, but he’ll use this as a learning experience.”

Ohio State lived and died by streaky shooting of its leading scorer all season long, but the latter was the case when the Buckeyes needed him most at the start of what could have been a deep NCAA Tournament run.