BATON ROUGE — Ralston Turner poured in a game-high 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting highlighted by a quartet of three-pointers to lift the Purple squad to a 61-35 victory over the Gold in a 30-minute scrimmage Friday at the Maravich Center.
Aaron Dotson added 12 points and dished out a game-best five assists. Malcolm White turned in a solid all-around effort with nine points and nine rebounds to headline the Purple team.
For the Gold squad, Matt Derenbecker tallied 13 points, which included a 5-for-7 performance at the free throw line. Dennis Harris chipped in 11 points on 5-of-8 from the floor and secured eight rebounds.
The Gold team raced out to a 19-8 advantage during the first eight minutes sparked by eight quick points from Derenbecker.
After 3-for-19 shooting to start the game, the Purple squad found its rhythm and reeled off 24 of the next 29 points to build a 32-24 advantage at halftime. Turner tallied 13 of his 21 points in the opening stanza during 19 minutes of action.
Out of the break, the Purple team continued its strong play and pushed its lead to 51-30 on a Dotson jumper in transition. A thunderous two-handed dunk by White on a stellar outlet pass from Dotson capped the 61-35 victory.
“Well obviously this is the last dress rehearsal,” said LSU Coach Trent Johnson. “There were some good things. I think some guys, for the first time, got into some rhythm coming off this last weekend. We were able to put some more stuff in offensively, but of course we were a little bit more comfortable going against ourselves. For the most part there were no surprises. Defensively we were good in spots, but when you are going against your teammates there are going to be some breakdowns and guys trying to jump into lanes to steal the ball. I think we got a chance to score the ball. Like I said earlier, going into this year I think we have a chance to score the ball from about seven or eight guys.”
The Purple team shot 83.3 percent in the second half which last 10 minutes, making 10-of-12 shots, including 5-of-5 from three-point range. For the 30 minutes, the Purple Tigers were 22-of-43 from the field. For the game, the two teams were 15-of-19 from the free throw line and 13-of-26 from three-point range.
LSU takes on Northwestern State in its 2010-11 season opener next Friday inside the Maravich Center. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. with live video available on LSUsports.net in the Geaux Zone and the radio broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network (100.7 FM in Baton Rouge). The Tigers will put an 80-game winning streak on the line in the PMAC against Louisiana schools.
LSU basketball fans can get updated information on the men’s basketball team at www.Facebook.com/lsubasketball and on twitter @LSUbasketball and @LSUCoachJohnson. LSU basketball ticket information is available at www.LSUtix.net.
LSU Purple-Gold Scrimmage
November 5, 2010
TRENT JOHNSON QUOTES
Opening Statement …
“Well obviously this is the last dress rehearsal. There were some good things. I think some guys, for the first time, got into some rhythm coming off this last weekend. We were able to put some more stuff in offensively, but of course we were a little bit more comfortable going against ourselves. For the most part there were no surprises. Defensively we were good in spots, but when you are going against your teammates there are going to be some breakdowns and guys trying to jump into lanes to steal the ball. I think we got a chance to score the ball. Like I said earlier, going into this year I think we have a chance to score the ball from about seven or eight guys. Chris Bass and Andre Stringer both did a very good job in terms of running the team. For the most part I thought it was good. We had good support and I am glad the fans came out in a situation like this, where it is a Friday night and there is a football game the next day. I thought that was pretty good.”
On Ralston Turner‘s performance …
“Forget the talent level and the skill level, he is very coachable. He is a great kid who is very coachable, and he has a great demeanor about him. He doesn’t get frustrated and he doesn’t show a lot of facial expression during the game. He and Andre are both like that. I am not worried about his scoring, and he didn’t break down on a lot of plays offensively. Defensively he got over extended a couple of times, and he had a couple of turnovers. I am not worried about his ability to score the ball that is going to happen.”
On if the team will look to play fast …
“Like I said earlier, we are going to play as fast as we can play well. There are going to be certain teams that we will be aggressive against, and certain teams we won’t. The thing with us is I think we have a chance to play with balance. We can play fast against some people and then others we will play half-court. Obviously with the way we shoot the ball and when these guys get a feel for each other that will help. Shot selection is what I think hurt the gold team … we are going to be very effective in a zone against some teams. But yeah, we are going to look to push the ball.”
On if the purple team was the starting five …
“No. A lot can happen in four days. As much as you guys want to talk about that and get caught up in that, it is not an issue. It is not an issue with this team. That is what I like about it, they don’t care. I don’t make that decision; they do based on their performance. There are a lot of guys that are close to each other and a lot can happen in four days.”
On the good perimeter shooting …
“For us to be effective we are going to have to have balance. With the range of some of these kids, that post play is going to open up. We are going to go into games with an idea about how we are going to attack, but for me every team that I have coached that has a been a good team has some good balance where they can score inside and out. We will see.”
On the team’s defensive play …
“It was good for the most part. I thought we relaxed, and that’s something that worries me. This is not a basketball team that right out the gate you can’t be operating all sides with an edge to your defensive end. We have the ability to really go on some runs offensively. We’ve come out of the gate really well. There are some people that we are going to play out of our conference that are going to surprise you with how good they are, and they aren’t necessarily household names. We will play one of them next Friday. We have to make sure that when the ball is first thrown up, we are the first ones making an aggressive play. In my terms, we have to hit before being hit.”
On free throws …
“We haven’t shot them as much as we did this time last year. That’s something I don’t worry about because obviously we have kids that are better shooters. The interesting thing is that this is the first time they have been in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center for the first time in a week. They may worry about whether they get to shoot or not, but it’s all in your head. If you can shoot, you can shoot. It’s a mental thing. For us to come out here and shoot the ball, I’m not worried.”