Sports

Solon's Dallas Lauderdale Finishes NCAA Career

Ohio State eliminated from NCAA tournament with loss to Kentucky

NEWARK, N.J. – It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for Solon native Dallas Lauderdale.

The Ohio State 6-foot-8 senior forward had an impromptu graduation prior to a second-round win over George Mason in the NCAA tournament last week and it continued with the top-seeded Buckeyes this week on their quest to win a national title.

That came to an end Friday as Ohio State lost to fourth-seeded Kentucky, 62-60, in the NCAA East Regional Semifinals at Prudential Center.

Find out what's happening in Solonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lauderdale, who has played all four years, ranks fourth all-time in school history in games played with 138. He only logged five minutes in the loss, grabbing two defensive rebounds.

Kentucky advances to the Elite 8 Sunday, where it will play North Carolina, who beat Marquette, 81-63, in the other East Regional Semifinal.

Find out what's happening in Solonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It’s not the way we wanted to end it, especially with the group we have,” Lauderdale said. “I just didn’t want the season to end. Kentucky made some great plays and they have some great players. They made plays they needed to make to get the win, we didn’t.”

Ohio State made the tournament three of Lauderdale’s four years, losing in the first round in 2009 and in the regional semifinals last season. Last night, they shot a putrid 19-of-58 from the field.

Kentucky’s Brandon Knight followed through on a jumper with 5 seconds left to give the Wildcats the lead. Ohio’s Will Bufford missed a three-point shot with .9 seconds remaining in a last-ditch effort to make an everlasting highlight.

Lauderdale, 22, was a standout at Solon High School, where he led the school to four straight Ohio Division I and Western Reserve Conference titles, and two regional runner-up finishes during his sophomore and junior years.

He was named 2007 Western Reserve Conference Most Valuable Player and was a Division I second-team all-state, all-city and All-Western Reserve selection.

While his high school averages of 24 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks per game haven’t translated to the college level (4.2, 3.5, 1.55), he’s been an integral part of Ohio State’s leadership the last two years as an upperclassman. His 213 career blocks also rank him third all-time in program history.

And while he doesn’t shoot often, he shot 77 percent from the field a year ago and is a career 74 percent shooter.

The strategic communication major rejected a career-high eight attempts in Ohio State’s opening-round NCAA tournament win over UCSB last year, which ranks as the sixth-most blocks in a single game in school history.

The nephew of former NBA player Jim Chones and cousin of former WNBA player Kaayla Chones, Lauderdale wouldn’t mind adding his name to the professional ranks sometime soon.

DraftExpress.com ranks him as the 37th best senior in this year’s graduating class for the NBA Draft, but the chances of being picked are slim.

“I’m trying to play somewhere,” he said. “I don’t know where, but wherever God leads me, I’ll go. I don’t know what God has for me.”

While the pros would be a dream come true, graduating from Ohio State was a more immediate hurdle he conquered.

“Graduating is very important to the Ohio State program,” said Lauderdale, who was the 11th best center in the country while at Solon in 2007, according to Rivals.com. “Getting your schoolwork doing and having the grades acceptable to be able to play out on the court are very special. It is definitely a blessing.”

This loss will leave the inevitable sour taste in his mouth for some time. Asked if it’s the worst he’s endured, he said, “right now, yeah. I’m living it.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Solon