« backTopic: High School Football

BATON ROUGE - Several hundred Tiger basketball fans turned out Tuesday night to get a first look at Trent Johnson's first LSU basketball team as the Purple Tigers defeated the Gold Tigers, 46-34, in a 25-minute scrimmage at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
 
The Purple team was made up primarily of veteran returnees Tasmin Mitchell, Marcus Thornton, Garrett Temple and Chris Johnson with sophomore Bo Spencer at the point guard position.
 
The game was tied three times in the first 2:20 of the contest before the Purple team took the lead for good on a layup by Mitchell.
 
But both teams, while shooting a decent percentage early on, had a little trouble handling the basketball, turning it over 22 times combined.
 
Mitchell, playing 24 minutes for the Purple team and another eight for the Gold team, combined to score 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting and 5-of-5 at the free throw line. Chris Johnson scored 14 points with three blocks and Marcus Thornton scored 13 for the Purple team. Marcus Thornton also had a scrimmage high four steals.
 
The teams combined to shoot 29-of-69 (42.0 percent), but 1-of-13 from the now one-foot longer (20-9) three-point arc. One of the traits of last year's team, good free throw shooting, continued in the scrimmage as the LSU teams combined for 21-of-29 at the stripe.
 
The Purple team scored 20 of its points in the paint, got 15 points off turnovers and had nine second chance points.
 
"The scrimmage showed us the things we need to improve on," said Temple. "But it also showed us what we were able to execute effectively. We have to get more consistent stops and show our athleticism."
 
"I wish I could say I was surprised," Coach Johnson said afterwards to the media. "Obviously we shot the ball pretty well. I thought they shared the ball pretty well and made each other better. In the other three facets, we have a ways to go. Defensively, our veteran group gave up 30 points against four or five freshman who haven't played a lot and that is a concern. We have a ways to go. I thought we did a decent job of taking care of the ball early on in the first 15 or 16 minutes, especially with the veteran group.
 
"The thing is, this group cares. That is why they were so tight, but we have a ways to go. There has been a sense of rebounding with urgency and playing with a sense of urgency. Nobody is going to talk about this because no one wants to hear this, but when we get rid of the element of ‘cool'  and learn how to compete regardless of who is in the stands we are going to go somewhere and they know that. Good thing is it is early."
 
The Tigers will take part in the annual "Basketball Block Party" Wednesday on Tower Drive by the LSU Student Union and Free Speech Alley between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Both the men's and women's teams will be on hand along with the cheerleaders and Tiger Girls. There will be a basketball sport court for competition for students and four video game stations featuring games from EA Sports. There will be free food during the event.
 
LSU opens its season on Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. against Jackson State in the Maravich Center. Season tickets are on sale at the LSU Athletic Ticket Office and online at www.LSUSports.net. Tickets for men's basketball start at $100 and Athletics Director Joe Alleva has committed to allow fans who purchase the tickets this year as part of LSU's basketball centennial that they price for renewal will remain $100 for five seasons.