COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two important dates – March 6, 2005 and Jan. 14, 2004 – hung over the Illini as they failed to compete Sunday at the Value City Arena.

Forty-nine weeks ago, Illinois gave up a sudden 65-64 loss at Ohio State, snapping an undefeated regular season in its final seconds. Two years ago, the Illini fell 70-60 at Northwestern and created a two-game losing streak they soon snapped out of and had not repeated – until Sunday.

No. 10 Illinois gave up its second loss in a row, falling to No. 19 Ohio State in a 53-69 contest Sunday they say they just weren’t hungry enough to win.

“I thought we came out casual,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “I was disappointed because we did that last week and that is all we talked about this week.”

While the Illini (20-4, 6-4) tried to battle back from a 20-point deficit, the closest they came was 9 points away. The Buckeyes (18-3, 7-3) scored first on a 3-pointer by Matt Sylvester – the forward who sunk the three that stole the game in 2005 – and Illinois ultimately trailed for the entire 40 minutes.

“We just didn’t come with it right away,” sophomore forward Brian Randle said. “Especially in the Big Ten, especially on the road, that’s going to get you killed.”

Seniors Dee Brown and James Augustine led Illinois with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Augustine dominated Illinois’ defense, collecting 13 rebounds.

The game, however, belonged to the Buckeyes. The Value City Arena crowd never let up its enthusiasm, and the experienced players – many of whom, Weber pointed out, have been in the Big Ten longer than he’s been a head coach in the conference – kept up an impressive 44.4 percent shooting game.

Illinois next heads back to Assembly Hall to take on Northwestern on Wednesday. The game should be a win, as the Illini easily defeated the Wildcats 58-47 in Evanston on Jan. 21. And as a conference championship becomes a more and more distant goal, the team still sees it as possible.

“The Big Ten thus far has been a crazy thing,” Randle said. “Who’s to say Ohio State won’t lose two in a row or Iowa won’t lose two in a row and we could win it?”