If nothing else, junior point guard Bo Spencer looked healthy and more than ready to become the main scoring threat for the LSU men’s basketball team Wednesday night.Spencer was the highlight of a rusty Tiger effort at the team’s Purple and Gold Scrimmage, firing up 19 shots and scoring a game-high 21 points for the purple team in a 46-46 tie.”They were calling a lot of plays for me, and I was trying not to force anything — I was trying to take what was there,” Spencer said. “Coach [Trent Johnson] told me I was going to have to be a scorer … and he told me also to look for my shot, so that’s what I did.”Expectations are on Spencer, just months removed from wrist surgery, to help fill departed guard Marcus Thornton’s shoes and join senior forward Tasmin Mitchell as the Tigers’ main offensive weapons this season.”My wrist is coming back full speed, and my shot looks like it’s getting right back where it was,” Spencer said.Spencer certainly did his best impression of Thornton in the dying moments of the first half when he sank two three-point shots and a running baseline layup in the span of about 45 seconds.But not everything looked picture perfect for the Tigers or their starting point guard.Spencer contributed three of a team total 27 turnovers, as both teams threw passes into the stands, traveled and hacked away at each other in their only public appearance of the preseason.”There were some things out there that weren’t very good,” Johnson said. “But all in all it was a good start for us considering it was the first time for a lot of guys — a lot of guys — under the lights with fans in the stands.”Johnson’s goal coming into the season was to find help for his few returning veterans, and several of LSU’s projected contributors turned in solid performances.Sophomore forward Garrett Green missed a wide-open layup in the game’s first minute but finished the game with 11 points, two rebounds and a block while shooting 55 percent from the field. Green worked his way to six hard-fought points in the paint in the first half and added a free throw and a mid-range jumper.”Garrett Green looked pretty good considering he’s been out for a year and a half with back problems,” Mitchell said. “He really took control of his advantages.”The Tigers’ young guards showed flashes as well, as sophomore Chris Bass and freshman Aaron Dotson each dished out five assists and combined for six points. But they also tallied seven turnovers between them — mistakes Johnson said the team “just can’t have.”Mitchell, the team’s returning all-conference forward, never seemed to find a rhythm despite finishing with 20 points and eight rebounds. He turned the ball over a game-high six times and shot 36 percent.”There’s a lot of shots out there he usually makes that he’s not making. I don’t worry about that,” Johnson said. “He’s his own worst enemy, and I’ve got to get him to relax … He’s fine.”Senior guard Alex Farrer seemed out of sorts as well, shooting just 1-of-8 in the first half and finishing with nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.But Farrer and Mitchell were two of five players, along with Spencer, sophomore guard Zach Kinsley and sophomore forward Storm Warren, to play all 35 minutes of the scrimmage with just a 60-second halftime.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]