Sills chipping in despite early shooting woes

Arkansas sopohmore Desi Sills (3) drives to the basket on Tuesday, November 12, 2019 in a game against North Texas in Bud Walton Arena.

FAYETTEVILLE — Desi Sills struggled from beyond the 3-point line in Arkansas' second exhibition game against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Oct. 26.

He finished just 1 of 6 from distance in the Razorbacks' 27-point win. But despite those woes he was one of five Arkansas players to reach double figures with 10 points. On Tuesday against North Texas, Sills again could not find his touch behind the arc, missing all four attempts, pushing him to 0 of 7 through two games.

The sophomore, though, did not allow his long-range inaccuracies to negatively impact his play on either end of the floor in the Razorbacks' 66-43 win over the Mean Green.

Offensively, he remained aggressive, particularly in the second half, and, defensively, crashed the glass as a forward might. Sills scored all nine of his points after halftime, and Arkansas guard Jimmy Whitt, who pitched in 13 points on an array of midrange jumpshots, took notice of the second-half surge.

"I think that's huge going into future games because we know we're going to need everybody," Whitt said. "Desi is a shooter. We're going to need him to get that confidence knocking down shots. I loved seeing how he started off slow, and I sort of saw he needed a pick-up and we're all teammates, we're all family. We're there to pick him up."

Entering the final 10 minutes of the game, Sills, who has started 10 consecutive games dating back to a Feb. 23 home meeting with Texas A&M last season, had only one point, but he contributed six crucial points in a one-minute, 20-second span to balloon the Razorbacks' lead to 19 with less than six minutes to play.

And for good measure he added a layup in the game's final minute to cap his night.

"When he got it going I just loved to see it," Whitt said. "I love that confidence being built because I know that's going to lead into a game where we're coming down the stretch and everybody else might be cold and he might be the one to step up and he might be the one knocking down shots.

"Things like that, you love to see it."

Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman likened Sills' off shooting game to a baseball player who had gone hitless in his first five at-bats but took advantage of another trip to the plate.

Included in his second-half scoring streak was an and-1 in transition that provided a boost in confidence and energized the crowd of 12,001.

"He stopped settling for his jumpshot and he started attacking the rim and it opened up the game for him, for sure, from a transition offense standpoint," Musselman added. "The game of basketball just has so many ebbs and flows. Desi struggled shooting the ball, but I thought defensively he was really good in the first half."

Sills was certainly a plus on the boards. His six defensive rebounds (Arkansas finished with 20) were a career-high and the most of any Razorbacks player in the game. He had never grabbed more than three in a game in his young career prior to Tuesday.

Through two games, Arkansas is allowing opponents to rebound 24.2 percent of their misses with Sills on the floor compared to 29.4 percent in the 37 defensive possessions he has not been in the lineup, according to HoopLens.

Although Sills has not made a 3 to this point, he is 7 of 9 from the floor inside the arc. Only junior guard Mason Jones (10 of 13) has more 2-point scores. Isaiah Joe also has seven, all but one coming in the season opener against Rice.

Following the win, Musselman appeared encouraged by Sills' strong finish.

"I thought he was phenomenal down the stretch scoring," he said. "He did what a really good player should do."