Shoes squeaking on a wooden floor never sounded so sweet.
The LSU men’s basketball team played a game at the PMAC on Friday for the first time since March, as a 30-0 run propelled the Purple team past the Gold team, 61-35, in the Purple-Gold scrimmage.
“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.”
The Purple team consisted of freshmen guards Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner, sophomore guard Aaron Dotson, sophomore forward Eddie Ludwig and junior forwards Storm Warren and Malcolm White.
The Gold team comprised sophomore guard Daron Populist, freshman forwards Matt Derenbecker and Jalen Courtney, sophomore forward Dennis Harris, junior forward Garrett Green, junior center Justin Hamilton and redshirt sophomore center Andrew Del Piero.
Junior guard Chris Bass started on the Purple team and switched to the Gold team in the second half.
Bass played a combined 22 minutes and scored four points while Stringer scored six points in 27 minutes.
“We’ve got a chance to score the ball from about seven or eight guys,” Johnson said. “Chris and Andre did a great job in terms of running the team.”
The Gold team led, 24-14, in the first half before the stunning Purple run, culminating in a 32-24 Purple lead at the half.
The Purple lead expanded to 44-24 in the second half before Derenbecker hit a free throw to end the run.
The first nine points of the game came from freshmen as Turner knocked down two 3-pointers and Derenbecker added another.
Turner finished with a team-leading 21 points, going 4 of 5 from 3-point range.
“Forget the talent level and the skill level,” Johnson said. “He’s a great kid and he’s 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.”
The Purple team went 5 of 5  from 3-point range in the second half and shot 60 percent from long distance for the game.
Johnson said he was happy with the offensive output but is more worried about how the team is performing defensively.
“We have to make sure that when the ball is first thrown up, we are the first ones making an aggressive play,” he said. “In my terms, we have to hit before being hit.”
Dotson led both teams with five assists and added 12 points and two steals.
The game was halted by the coaches with more than nine minutes remaining after a monster dunk by White.
White finished with nine points and Warren finished with six, even though the two started a combined 0-for-7.
Johnson said he expects White to have growing pains after sitting out a season, and     Warren may have been favoring his Achilles’ tendon throughout the game.
“Malcolm, there’s a lot of rust there,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of balls that were bouncing around that he should have had, and we’ve got to get Storm healthy.”
Johnson, who coached the Purple team while assistant coach Donny Guerinoni coached the Gold team, said the Purple team’s starting five will not necessarily be the starting five in the season opener against Northwestern State Friday.
“It’s not an issue with this group,” Johnson said. “That’s what I like about it. They don’t care.”
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]