With beefy freshman Alexander Johnson dominating inside, FSU holds off Ole Miss 66-60 to stay perfect.
By ZACHARY SPAIN
Published December 4, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - If a post presence has been the missing piece the past few seasons, Florida State finally may have found him Wednesday night in its 66-60 win over Mississippi.
Freshman Alexander Johnson, at 6 feet 10 and 250 pounds, scored a game-high 19 with the help of an aggressive drop step and bruising body.
And he had success at the free-throw line.
"(He) really just gives us that inside presence. He wants the ball," said FSU forward Michael Joiner, who had 10 points. "He finished around the basket. And tonight he showed that even if he gets fouled, he can hit free throws."
Johnson, who signed with Georgia out of high school before playing last season at a Maine prep school, was 9-of-10 at the line and 5-of-5 from the floor.
"We knew (how physical Johnson would be). We knew he'd cause us some problems," Ole Miss coach Rod Barnes said. "We were hoping that in the second half if we went zone, they wouldn't look for him much."
Foul trouble forced the Rebels to switch to a less effective man-to-man defense in the first half, in which Johnson scored eight, but they returned to the zone after halftime, and it seemed to work as FSU had trouble in its halfcourt offense.
The Rebels got into position with the help of Justin Reed, who had 14 of his team-leading 18 points in the second half to help Ole Miss (2-2) fight back from a 34-20 halftime deficit.
Three fouls sent the 6-foot-8 forward to the bench with 5:54 to go in the first half, though he was used sparingly as the FSU defense forced Ole Miss to settle for outside shots. The Rebels were 2-of-13 on 3-pointers in the opening half.
But midway through the second, Reed keyed the Rebels' comeback, scoring all his points in the half in a nine-minute span that saw Ole Miss cut a 16-point lead to 57-51.
The presence of Reed, averaging 24.7 points going in, challenged the Seminoles defense, allowing Ole Miss to make three long-range shots in that span. The Rebels went 10-of-29 on 3s in the game but made 50 percent of their 3-pointers in the second half.
A constant defensive rotation, which included Johnson, tired Reed in the final minutes.
"I thought that he fatigued a little bit because we kept fresh bodies on him," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "That was clear when he was on the floor and not quite as effective (late in the game)."
Meantime, Florida State, 6-0 for the first time since starting 8-0 in 1988-89, held off the Ole Miss comeback, holding the Rebels to three points (on a shot by Sam Agee in the final seconds) over the last 3:01.
Forward Kendrick Fox hit a 3-pointer from the corner to move Ole Miss to within 61-57, but the Rebels missed the next four shots behind the 3-point arc before Agee's. The Seminoles went 5-of-6 at the free-throw line to close the game.
"Normally when we play teams in that physical a game we come out on top," said Barnes, who took the Rebels to the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2002. "But they did a great job holding us off. We couldn't get over the hump."
