LSU men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson walked up to the microphone after his team’s contest Saturday against Jackson State and made a short statement about his team’s performance.”A win is a win,” Johnson said.LSU beat Jackson State, 79-65, at the PMAC in a game that stayed close until about eight minutes remained in the second half.Eight ties and 11 lead changes occurred in a first half that finished with both teams tied at 39.”I don’t think we played too well in the first half,” said junior forward Tasmin Mitchell. “It’s a great thing for us to learn from.”Johnson said his team’s “sluggish” practices leading up to the game showed on the court against Jackson State.”I know this is a team that how we practice is going to be how we play,” Johnson said.Johnson said he was disappointed with his team’s energy in the first half.”We started the game well the first two or three minutes,” Johnson said. “Hopefully this will be something that’s attributed to first-game jitters.”LSU scored first in the second frame on a pair of free throws by senior guard Marcus Thornton, but Jackson State tied it back up at 41 on a basket by senior guard Darrion Griffin nine seconds later.LSU took a 48-47 lead with 13:44 remaining in the game and didn’t look back, outscoring Jackson State, 31-18, the rest of the way.Mitchell and Thornton each had four fouls in the game.Mitchell picked up his fourth foul with 12:32 left in the game and was replaced by freshman forward Storm Warren.Mitchell went in and out the rest of the game, finishing with 17 points and six rebounds in his first regular season action since last November.”I felt good — the trainers did a good job of getting me back,” said Mitchell, who missed most of last season with a left leg injury.Thornton’s fourth came with 17:34 left in the second half.Johnson put junior guard Alex Farrer in for Thornton and didn’t put him back in the game until 7:58 was left in the game.Thornton, the Southeastern Conference’s second-leading scorer last season, finished with five points on 1-of-9 shooting in 18 minutes of play.Sophomore guard Bo Spencer picked up the slack, leading LSU in scoring with 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting.”There are going to be some days when Marcus is off,” Spencer said. “It just so happened today that I was able to pick him up.”Spencer hit three 3-pointers in the game, the third of which gave LSU a 73-63 lead and pumped up the crowd.”Coach [Johnson] told me if I had it, knock them down,” Spencer said. “It was just all a part of the game. It just happened.”Spencer also had no assists and three turnovers in the game. Johnson said he was surprised by Spencer’s lack of assists.”He’s been in the plus side in all of that,” Johnson said.Sophomore forward Garrett Green did not dress out because of a lower back injury. Freshman forward Dennis Harris also didn’t dress out. Johnson said he plans to redshirt Harris this season.
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