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Reid helps Florida State sink Florida once again

Dec 8, 2008 - 5:19 AM TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Ticker) -- It may not have its rival's national championships, but Florida State got the best of Florida once again.

Ryan Reid scored four of his 13 points in the final 1:20 as Florida State continued to bedevil No. 21 Florida with a 57-55 victory on Sunday.

Jordan DeMercy had a career-high 12 points and freshman Solomon Alabi added 11 and eight rebounds for the Seminoles (8-1), who defeated their intrastate rival for the third consecutive time.

Florida State was trailing, 51-50, with 1:20 left when Reid was fouled and went to the line and sank two free throws. Florida's Nick Calathes tried to respond on the other end, but he was swarmed on a baseline drive and his pass back out to the top of the key was deflected and stolen.

Following a timeout, the Seminoles chose to go inside to Reid, who got the ball on the left block and hit a turnaround jumper against Dan Werner, who was hampered by four fouls, with 38 seconds to play.

Freshman Ray Shipman quickly answered back with a reverse layup, but Uche Echefu made two free throws with 11 seconds left and, after two from the stripe by Calathes, DeMercy split a pair four ticks later for the 57-55 edge.

Werner then missed a 3-pointer in the closing moments for the Gators (6-2).

"The last few years of Florida State's history is always losing the (close) game, always losing by two points at the buzzer," DeMercy told the St. Petersburg Times. "We emphasized that that wasn't going to be us this year."

The clutch free throws wrapped up a solid effort at the line for Florida State, which went 19-of-26 (73 percent) to make up for a 31-percent effort from the field (16-of-51).

Florida did not prove much better, shooting 39 percent (20-of-51), including 4-of-18 on 3-pointers.

Despite any offensive issues, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton chose to foul Calathes with his team holding a 56-53 lead with seven seconds left, than let the sophomore get a look at a 3-pointer.

"I've seen Calathes hit shots from three or four steps past 3-point range," Hamilton told the Times. "So if I had to make a decision, I'd just rather get him fouled and take my chances."

The Gators missed six of their first eight shots after halftime, falling behind the Seminoles, 39-30, with 12:35 to play.

Despite its offensive issues, Florida was able to put a 14-2 run, pulling ahead, 44-42, on a pair of free throws by Walter Hodge with 7:53 to play. Calathes had five of his 16 points during the burst.

Calathes had 11 of his points in the second half, including a running bank shot that beat the shot clock and broke a 49-49 tie with 3:34 left. Reid then split two free throws for Florida State before both teams went on to miss their next three shots each.

With the victory, the Seminoles bounced back from their first loss of the season, a disappointing 73-59 setback at Northwestern in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday.

"We had a lot of heroes," Hamilton told the paper. "This team has a lot of confidence. Even when we haven't played very well, we've maintained our composure. Maybe something good has come from playing all these close games."

Werner finished with 10 points and Chandler Parsons added eight for the Gators, who ended up with 16 turnovers compared to just eight assists.

"They were able to capitalize a little more (on turnovers) than we were on the turnovers we were able to make," Florida coach Billy Donovan told the paper.