Dallas Lauderdale

Welcome to Final Analysis!

We will try and provide this special extra column for most Ohio State men’s basketball games the rest of the way.

We’ll provide some quick answers to some ordinary questions as well as some analysis on how things transpired in each OSU game.

This time we look inside Saturday’s 110-47 victory by the No. 17 Buckeyes over St. Francis (Pa.) at Value City Arena in Columbus.

Here we go:

* Player Of The Game – With the wealth spread around so much in this one and the Red Flash so clearly overmatched, the Buckeyes didn’t necessarily need an outstanding performance from anyone. However, Dallas Lauderdale continued to show he’s ready to impact the OSU front line this season.

The 6-8 junior center was outstanding defensively and also did some damage on the offensive end with 11 points. He made all four of his field-goal attempts and seemed to win over the crowd with a 3-for-4 showing on the free-throw line. Lauderdale also looked more comfortable and picked up a pair of assists.

And when the Red Flash drove into the paint he made them feel silly with six blocked shots, including one that he batted to himself with his left hand and another that he simply rose up and grabbed with both hands.

The Buckeyes also received another command performance from point guard Evan Turner, who played only 27 minutes yet still logged 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Like Lauderdale, Turner was perfect from the field – 7 for 7 – and was effective defensively with a steal and a block as well as some solid in-your-face pressure.

On a night when six Buckeyes scored in double figures and the team shot 62.9 percent, those two stood out the most.

* Key Moment – The Buckeyes proved to be unguardable for the smaller, slower Red Flash, but one particular sequence seemed to sum up the evening.

With his team already trailing 30-10 and in serious danger of being blown out of the building, St. Francis coach Don Friday was none too pleased to see Jon Diebler get loose in the corner and easily splash a three-pointer. He was so peeved, in fact, that he grabbed 6-4 freshman guard Anthony Ervin off the bench and angrily pulled 6-0 guard Sorena Orandi, who failed to get out on Diebler, from the floor.

Moments later, William Buford made a steal and coasted the other way for a lay-in and a 35-10 lead. He was fouled on the play and added a free throw to make it 36-10. The stoppage in play allowed Ervin to come in for Orandi and on the very next OSU possession Diebler connected from the very same spot in front of the St. Francis bench with the taller Ervin faring no better.

Right after that hoop, Turner made a steal and the Buckeyes cashed in a gain as Zisis Sarikopoulos flipped in a hook shot for a 41-10 lead and very frustrating 11-0 run for Friday.

* Unsung Hero – Buford needed a bit of redemption after a fairly troubling shooting funk and found it in this game as he squared up and released jumpers that have been his signature since splashing on the scene last season and being named the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year.

The 6-5 soph was 5 of 9 from the field including 2 of 4 from long range and drilled all three of his free-throw attempts. He also came through with five rebounds, three assists and a steal in 28 very encouraging minutes.

“I was very happy to see Will kind of get back to who Will was,” Ohio State coach Thad Matta said, “and to his credit, like I told him when he came out, ‘It’s amazing when you work as hard as you’ve worked here in the last couple days …’ his focus, his attention to detail, good things happen.”

This award also is shared, though, since reserve guard Jeremie Simmons had one of his best games as a Buckeye with a career-high 18 points and four steals. He was 7 of 9 from the floor and canned 3 of 5 from behind the arc.

* Best Sign – The Buckeyes never wavered defensively, showing tenacity and a thirst to blow the game open by causing miscues and scoring off of them. St. Francis managed just seven assists compared to 17 turnovers and OSU finished with 29 points off of those errors.

Plus, just to prove they were dialed in, the Buckeyes only had three team fouls while building leads of 30-7 and 39-10. OSU started the second half just as intently with an 18-2 run that pushed its 30-point halftime to 70-24. The teams fouls at that point in the half were five for the Red Flash and just one for Ohio State.

“I think we were focused on being in attack mode and making sure they were uncomfortable,” Turner said.

Added Diebler, “Coach really emphasized coming out with a lot of energy and what also helped was the practices we had leading into the game our energy was at a high level. Going into the Lipscomb game it wasn’t where it needed to be and I think that first four-minute war we kind of sent a message to them. And I think it started to wear on them because we kept coming. And even the guys on the bench came and played with great energy.”

The 110-point output was the 11^th-highest in program history and the Buckeyes produced 58 points in the second half with just two turnovers.

“The one thing we asked these guys coming into the game tonight was trying to get out early and establish, especially from the defensive side of the ball, dictating the tempo with the pressure, and I thought our guys did that,” Matta said. “We did a great job of sharing the basketball for 40 minutes, making extra passes and trying to find the open guy.”

The result was, well, ugly.

“We got shellacked,” Friday said to open his postgame comments.

* Worst Sign – Ohio State has to use this “contest” and lackluster 84-64 win over Lipscomb earlier in the week as a lead-in to the next game, which will be against large, athletic and dangerous Florida State. It’s possible the Buckeyes will be shell-shocked in the early moments of that game after overpowering and zipping by the last two combatants.

* Overall – This was a fairly pointless exercise in mismatchery but a fun display nonetheless. The Buckeyes put together several plays for the highlight reel. Turner with a pretty spin move on a helpless defender and reverse layup. Lauderdale with a steal out to Diebler for a dunk. Nikola Kecman with a rebound, push and no-look to Simmons for a hanging layup. Five-plus minutes of Mark Titus!

At one point the scoreboard hailed that everyone in attendance had won free French fries because the team had hit the 70-point mark – and that was with 15:49 remaining.

Matta said after the win over Lipscomb that his team had put together a laudable 40-minute effort all season but the Buckeyes pulled that off on this night.

* This Was A Step … forward, but doesn’t win a lot of big-picture points given how feeble St. Francis was. Still, this team needed to rebuild some confidence for Buford and its bench players and discover a little more cohesion going forward.

Plus, the OSU reserves logged 83 of the 200 minutes and combined to score 43 points.

“I think that’s always good,” Matta said. “You’d like to have a couple of those games in January and February but they usually don’t come around that way.”

* Next Up – The Buckeyes get to stay home but the competition ramps up as Florida State enters town for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Dec. 2 (9:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2). The Seminoles are off to a 4-1 start with the only loss coming at Florida, 68-52 on Tuesday. FSU has been getting by with balanced scoring and has a consistent threat at guard in 6-4 junior Derwin Kitchen (10.8 ppg), at forward with 6-9 soph Chris Singleton (10.8 ppg) and at center with 7-1 intimidator Solomon Alabi (10.2 ppg). Matta tried to recruit Alabi, a sophomore who already may be the ACC’s best true center. Coach Leonard Hamilton is blessed with lots of raw talent and there is reason for optimism in Tallahassee even though high-scoring guard (21.5 ppg) Toney Douglas is departed. FSU won 25 games last season and finished fourth in the ACC at 10-6, which made for the natural pairing with Ohio State.