DESI SILLS delivers off the bench.
FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas guard Desi Sills came up with his best career scoring game in SEC play Saturday against Missouri after having his worst scoring game in conference play this season Tuesday night at Florida.
Sills, a sophomore from Jonesboro, scored 17 points off the bench to help the Razorbacks beat the Tigers 78-68 at Walton Arena.
His previous scoring high in an SEC game had been 15 points at Kentucky last season and against Mississippi State last Saturday.
At Florida earlier this week, Sills was held scoreless for the first time in any game this season. He shot 0 of 7 from the field, including 0 4 on three-pointers and didn’t attempt a free throw.
Against Missouri, Sills hit 6 of 9 shots — including 4 of 6 three-pointers — and his only free throw.
“My reaction is at the end of the day it ain’t about what I did last game,” Sills said of his thoughts on the contrast in his play at Florida and against Missouri. “It’s about the next game, and I felt I stepped up big time to help out in all aspects.”
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman decided to start Jalen Harris on Saturday in place of Sills, who had started 24 of the previous 26 games this season.
“Any time you take a player out of the starting lineup you’ve always got to have concern,” Musselman said. “How is a player going to react? Is he going to have the right [mentality] and come out and produce?”
Sills played 32 minutes Saturday, the third-highest total on the team behind Jimmy Whitt (39) and Isaiah Joe (38).
“Look, there’s probably not too many players in the country that if they come off the bench and get to play 32 minutes, they’re [going to be unhappy],” Musselman said. “[Sills] played 32 minutes, which is a lot of minutes for a player in a 40-minute college game. He produced.”
Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin said he wasn’t surprised by Sills.
“He’s a tough kid,” Martin said. “We knew what he was about going into the game, so we knew he could play and knew he could shoot the ball, and we know he can drive the ball.”
Missouri guard Dre Smith said Sills — who scored 12 points against the Tigers two weeks ago when the Razorbacks lost 83-79 in overtime at Mizzou Arena — was prominently mentioned in the scouting report for Saturday’s rematch.
“We knew he was a good player,” Smith said. “The scouting report was that he likes to go left and he hits open threes. We had a few defensive breakdowns and he capitalized basically every time. I think any time we left him open he knocked down the shot.”
Sills had a big game off the bench for the second time this season. He didn’t start against TCU but scored 18 points in 33 minutes in the Razorbacks’ 78-67 victory over the Horned Frogs. He hit 7 of 8 shots, including 3 of 3 threepointers.
“I come off the bench with a chip on my shoulder, even though I try to come to each game like that,” Sills said. “But coming off the bench I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do to help my team win.”
Bad streaks over
Arkansas got its first SEC victory at home since beating Vanderbilt 75-55 on Jan. 15.
Since then, the Razorbacks had lost four consecutive conference home games for the first time since joining the SEC for the 1991-92 season.
It was the most consecutive conference home losses for the Razorbacks since the 1979-71 season when they lost seven consecutive Southwest Conference home games.
The Razorbacks’ four consecutive SEC home losses were to Kentucky, South Carolina, Auburn and Mississippi State.
Arkansas also ended its overall losing streak at five games by beating Missouri. It was the Razorbacks’ first victory in three weeks, since they won 82-78 at Alabama on Feb. 1.
Boxing out Reed
Arkansas did a much better job of keeping Nikko Reed — Missouri’s 6-10 senior center — off the boards on Saturday than in the teams’ first meeting two weeks ago.
Reed had 11 points and 11 rebounds in the Tigers’ 8379 overtime victory over the Razorbacks at Mizzou Arena on Feb. 8. He had six points and didn’t have a rebound in Saturday’s rematch.
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman was particularly annoyed that Reed had seven offensive rebounds in the first game. He said keeping Reed off the boards was a “huge emphasis” Saturday.
“Because I could have gone out there and kept him to seven offensive rebounds,” said Musselman, who is 5-7. “So yeah, it was double boxouts, not worrying about if you get the ball, but box him out. Keep him out of the lane.”
Nearly 1,000
Junior guard Mason Jones is five points shy of 1,000 in two seasons at Arkansas after scoring 12 points against Missouri.
Jones hit 7 of 8 free throws Saturday to give him 109 made free throws against SEC teams.
That ties him with Corliss Williamson for most free throws in a season by a Razorback in SEC games. Williamson hit 109 of 158 free throws in SEC games in 1995.
Perimeter defense
Missouri’s two lowest three-point shooting games percentage-wise in SEC games have both come against Arkansas.
The Razorbacks held the Tigers to 4 of 21 on threepointers (19.0%) on Saturday after Missouri hit 3 of 16 (18.8%) in an 83-79 overtime victory on Feb. 8 in Mizzou Arena.
“You have to say their defense was good,” Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin said. “You have to give them credit.
“I imagine we would have made more if we were wide open. So give them credit for doing a good job of making us take tough ones.“
Perimeter offense
Arkansas hit 12 of 25 three-pointers against Missouri for the Razorbacks’ most makes from beyond the arc in an SEC game this season.
“I thought we had a lot of breakdowns that left them pretty wide open with their feet set,” Missouri guard Dru Smith said. “They were knocking them down with time and space. We just had to do a better job of running them off the line.”
Arkansas’ previous high for three-point baskets was in a 79-76 overtime loss to Auburn when the Razorbacks hit 10 of 25.
The 12 three-point baskets against Missouri matched Arkansas’ season high for all games. The Razorbacks hit 12 of 31 in a 71-64 victory at Indiana on Dec. 29.
Lineup change
Arkansas used its eighth different starting lineup of the season with Isaiah Joe’s return to the lineup after he missed the previous five games receiving from knee surgery and Jalen Harris making his fourth start of the season.
Joe and Harris — who started along with Jimmy Whitt, Mason Jones and Adrio Bailey — were in the lineup against Missouri in place of Ethan Henderson and Desi Sills.
Henderson, a sophomore from Little Rock Parkview, made his first career start at Florida.
Whitt, a senior guard, is the only Razorback to start every game this season.
Another split
Arkansas and Missouri had a 1-1 split of the regularseason games for the fourth consecutive year with each team winning at home.
The last sweep was by the Razorbacks, who took two games from the Tigers during the 2015-16 season.
Vs. Missouri
Arkansas improved to 28-25 all-time against Missouri, including 17-9 at home where the Razorbacks have beaten the Tigers six consecutive times.
The Razorback are 9-7 against the Tigers since Missouri joined the SEC for the 2012-13 season.