Colleges

Johnson leads Wake Forest past Florida State

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - James Johnson can dominate the inside, hit 3-pointers, rebound with the best of them and is a pretty good defender, too.

The Wake Forest freshman won't be confused with a walking basketball encyclopedia.

Minutes after Johnson had scored 21 of his career-high 26 points in the second half to lead the Demon Deacons to a 74-57 win over Florida State on Sunday, Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton was gushing that Johnson is better than former Seminoles star Al Thornton was as a freshman.

Pretty big compliment. Thornton was last year's leading scorer in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a unanimous all-conference selection. The 14th overall pick in the NBA draft is having a pretty good rookie season with the Los Angeles Clippers.

But when Johnson was asked if he was familiar with Thornton, he shook his head.

"For a coach to say that, that's just a big compliment no matter if I know who Al Thornton is or not," Johnson said. "If he's in the (NBA), obviously he's real good."

The Demon Deacons are more than willing to overlook Johnson's lack of ACC institutional knowledge. Overcoming early foul trouble, Johnson spearheaded a 13-0 run early in the second half to put Wake Forest (12-5, 2-2 ACC) ahead to stay. He then hit a 3-pointer and had a steal and dunk to put Wake Forest ahead 68-55 with 4:48 left.

"Al was that way coming in as a freshman but not quite as skilled as Johnson," Hamilton said. "He had tremendous poise. He played with a lot of maturity and allowed the offense to come to him."

Johnson, who added nine rebounds and three steals, hit 10 of 15 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range as Wake Forest snapped a two-game losing streak behind its 6-foot-8 forward from Cheyenne, Wyo. who insists he watches a lot of basketball.

Maybe he's just bad with names.

"You could ask him about the '95 Bulls and he could probably tell you Jordan and Pippen and that's it," joked teammate L.D. Williams.

Jeff Teague added 12 points and Harvey Hale scored 10 for Wake Forest, which recovered from road losses to Boston College and Maryland to win its ACC-best 15th straight home game dating to last season.

Wake Forest is 1-5 on the road and visits Clemson Tuesday.

"When you're at home, especially with youngsters, there's a lot of positive energy in the building," Demon Deacons coach Dino Gaudio said. "Conversely, when you're on the road, there's a lot of negative energy. I think that's part of the basketball maturation part."

Committing only nine turnovers, Wake Forest was too efficient for the Seminoles, who are still trying to work big men Ryan Reid and Julian Vaughn back into the rotation after they missed significant time.

Ralph Mims had 17 points, Uche Echefu scored all 13 of his points in the first half and Toney Douglas came off the bench to score 10 on 4-of-13 shooting for Florida State (12-7, 1-3), which lost its third straight.

"For the first time this year it seemed like the major minutes we've been forced to play with the smaller lineup really caught up with us," said Hamilton, who was denied his 300th career win.

Early on, Florida State was the aggressor. After Johnson went to the bench with two fouls five minutes in, the Seminoles immediately went on a 7-0 run. Echefu dominated early, including a 3-pointer that put the Seminoles ahead 23-14.

After the Seminoles scored the first point of the second half to take a 32-28 lead, Johnson had a putback and a 3-pointer to put Wake Forest ahead for good.

Johnson's top highlight was a coast-to-coast drive that included a head fake in the lane before a thunderous one-handed dunk that made it 61-50.

Florida State's Isaiah Swann went over 1,000 points in his career with a driving layup on the next possession, before another burst from Johnson's put it away.

"Golly, he was just hot the whole second half," Williams said. "I caught myself watching a couple of times, like, 'What's he going to do this time?'"

[Last modified January 20, 2008, 19:36:36]