Spencer fills in nicely for LSU

• By RANDY ROSETTA
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 25, 2008

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For most of the final 10 minutes against Ole Miss on Saturday, LSU junior Garrett Temple found himself in an unfamiliar spot as he was relegated to the Tigers bench.

And Temple, who has logged more minutes than any player in the Southeastern Conference the last three seasons, didn’t mind the view at all.

LSU’s guard-anybody-anytime-anywhere defensive wizard was ticketed with his fourth personal foul with 9:45 left in the Tigers’ 69-49 victory and had to check out and find a seat on the bench.

“There was no need for me to go back in,” said Temple, whose 34.5 minutes per game (36.5 in league games) rank fifth in the SEC.

Temple was right, and that represents a milestone for LSU this season and perhaps in the future as well.

Usually when Temple leaves — which isn’t often — the Tigers tend to unravel to some degree. That was certainly the case when Temple missed several minutes against Florida after a bloody collision between his mouth and the court.

Against the Rebels, Temple exited with LSU on top 51-35, but even that didn’t seem 100 percent safe. Not considering a handful of earlier games this season, when the Tigers frittered away double-digit leads — most notably, of course, the 21-point cushion at Villanova in the final 8 minutes.

But something different and welcome happened instead. Without Temple, instead of scuffling, the Tigers stretched the lead and won going away.

Freshman point guard Bo Spencer played the final 10 minutes as well as he has all season, contributing five points. More importantly, though, Spencer matched up well defensively against Ole Miss point guard counterpart Chris Warren.

The Rebels’ 5-foot-10 dynamo was limited to eight points in the loss and found no relief when Temple ceded the defensive duties to Spencer.

In 28 minutes locking horns with Temple, Warren scored five points — a 3-pointer and a layup in transition — but missed 8-of-10 field-goal attempts. Over the final 10 minutes with Spencer draped on him, Warren was 1-of-6 from the floor and missed his last four shots after draining a 3 at the 7:41 juncture.

Bottom line: A 3-of-16 shooting day and just one assist in 31 turnovers for one a player as valuable to his team as anyone else in the SEC.

“Bo Spencer has been practicing real well and we have a lot of confidence that he can come in and play that way,” Temple said. “He did a great job guarding Chris Warren, he had a couple of big hustle plays and he got the team in the offense and the way he’s supposed to. Bo’s only going to get better and help us in the future and this was a big step for him and us.”