FAYETTEVILLE — Future Arkansas guard Desi Sills and his Jonesboro teammates are one step away from a Class 6A state title and perfection.
The Hurricane (31-0) will try to achieve both on Friday at 3:30 p.m. when they battle El Dorado (28-4) and fellow future Razorback Daniel Gafford at the Bank of Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs.
Gafford is averaging 17.4 points, 16.0 rebounds (good for ninth in the country) and 7.8 blocks this season (tops nationally) with 11 triple-doubles and 27 double-doubles this season.
“It’s a big challenge playing one of the best bigs in Arkansas and the best rebounder in Arkansas,” Sills said of Gafford. “If we can stop him from getting so many rebounds, we can definitely win.”
Sills, a junior averaging a team-high 15.5 points per game this season, knows how much 32-0 would mean to him, his teammates and the city of Jonesboro.
“If we win this game, we are going to go down in history at 32-0,” Sills said Thursday afternoon. “This game means so much to me and my teammates and even though I have got the flu, I am going to pull through for my teammates.
“The city of Jonesboro is going to go crazy when we get back home if we get this win. We are going to get love everywhere we go if we get this win.”
Sills - one of four Arkansas Hawks teammates who have committed to the Razorbacks to form the nation’s top 2018 class - is part of a loaded prep team for head coach Wes Swift that includes a pair of Arkansas State signees in Marquis Eaton (basketball) and Jonathan Adams (football).
“Desi has been solid all year for us,” Swift said. “He is our leading scorer at like 15.5 a game right now. The cool thing about Desi is he doesn’t take a lot of shots. He is such a team player.
“But he can also put up a lot of points in a hurry. I think he had 31 in just over 2 1/2 quarters against Forest City back three or four weeks ago.
“But if he doesn’t have to score, he still plays defense and rebounds and does whatever he can to help us win. He is just a total team player and while his stats may not be gaudy in high school, once he gets out there on the summer circuit and plays a little more free, I think you will see his number production go up for the Hawks.”
Sills is an incredible athlete as evidenced by a dunk he has this season in which he soared over a defender for a posterizing dunk.
“Desi will be the first to tell you that he got a foot on that kid and it allowed him to get up even higher and look more amazing, but he was already well on his way to dunking on that kid,” Swift said.
“That is just an example of not how he just attacks the rim, but how he attacks the game and that is going to be the fun part for Arkansas fans to watch.”
Jonesboro’s closest brush with defeat came against Tulsa Central in the Martin Luther King Class in Little Rock.
The Hurricane had to rally from 20 points down in the third quarter with Sills scoring 13 of his 22 in the final quarter as Jonesboro pulled out a 65-58 win.
“The kids have just been very consistent all year,” Swift said. “We’ve had to be lucky a few times. We didn’t play well at all against Tulsa Central and we had to go into a desperation-mode-type press and it paid off. The guys never quit and just kept coming and probably that was our best chance to lose one.
“There was also a Springfield Kickapoo team that is still playing and we had a back-and-forth game with them and ended up winning 80-76 at our place.
“And then we had an 18-game conference grind and that’s a long one and you are playing teams in the 5A that are good enough to beat you on a given night, but at the same time our guys weren’t as juiced up to play a team as they needed to be.”
Sills has been keeping an eye on an Arkansas (23-8) that has won six of its last seven heading into Friday night's SEC Tournament game.
“I am very happy for Arkansas and the run they are having right now,” Sills said. “I hope they keep it up.”