Spencer, Green show progress after injuries

• By GARY LANEY
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Oct 29, 2009 - Page: 1C

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Bo Spencer is coming off wrist surgery on his shooting hand. Garrett Green hadn’t played for a year and a half because of a back injury.

But at Wednesday’s LSU basketball scrimmage at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, both showed signs of progressing from their injuries.

Spencer scored 21 points on 8-for-19 shooting, and Green scored 11 points in 28 minutes in a 35-minute scrimmage that ended in a 46-46 tie.

“It felt good,” said Spencer, who got the scrimmage started with a 17-foot baseline jumper and stayed aggressive throughout. “I know it still hurts. I was a little leery about taking a fall on it. I took a fall and caught myself with my left (nonshooting) hand. But my wrist is coming back full speed, and my shot is coming back right where it was.”

Spencer had offseason surgery on a broken bone after taking a fall at Kentucky last season, and had a setback when he re-injured it at a fall near his home. That’s a short period of time missed compared to Green, who missed all of last season with a back injury.

But Green ran the floor well Wednesday. He missed a lay-up on a fast break early in the game, got another, then hit another. He hit a couple of low post shots and a jumper in a 5-for-9 shooting day.

“For the most part, I’m very pleased because he was out there, he went a full 30 minutes, didn’t get in foul trouble, and there was no pain,” Tigers coach Trent Johnson said.

Their pain-free play is important on a team that lacks the depth and experience of last season’s 27-8 Southeastern Conference championship team.

The Tigers’ youth showed at times — there were 27 turnovers — and at times it was the returning starters that seemed to carry the bulk of the workload Wednesday.

Spencer, leading the Purple team, also had four assists, two steals and four rebounds. All-SEC forward Tasmin Mitchell, making a move to small forward after playing power forward last year, scored 20 points on 7-for-19 shooting and added eight rebounds, two assists, but six turnovers for the Gold team.

“I thought it was very productive,” Mitchell said. “We came out and competed against each other. We got a lot done. We saw a lot of things: bad things, good things.”

Among the best of the good things was forward Malcolm White, who is sitting out this season after his transfer from Ole Miss. He played just 14 minutes, conceding playing time to players who will play this year, and scored eight points on 4-for-6 shooting to go with three rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.

“He came in the game and right away made the game look easy in terms on making 2-foot baskets,” Johnson said. “But I thought Malcolm stood out in how he’s adjusted to a new system. Here’s a guy who’s in a new system. Here’s a guy who’s been in a system that’s perimeter-oriented, run up-and-down, and for him to come out there in a new system in a new environment and not make very many mistakes and make some plays, I thought he stood out.”