Candace Buckner

candace.buckner@indystar.com

Suns at Pacers%2C 7 p.m. Saturday%2C FSI

From the moment Solomon Hill stepped foot off the plane, landing in Indianapolis as a prospective job candidate, he has acted as a professional.

After his pre draft workouts, he made sure to lock eyes with scouts and coaches, and speak confidently in a way they wouldn't expect. As the only rookie last year, he blended in a locker room where if you closed your eyes and heard his baritone, you couldn't distinguish it from one of the married grown men in the place. And this year, with so many veterans out, Hill has taken it upon himself to speak up whenever he senses a lag in energy on the defensive end.

With this string of examples, Hill has already stamped out his reputation with the Indiana Pacers but on Wednesday, he added to the lore of his beyond-his-years maturity.

The Pacers turned to Rodney Stuckey for the final shot in the closing seconds of a tied game against the Charlotte Hornets, but his jump shot floated in short. Then, Hill, making the heads up play against veteran Gerald Henderson, jumped and corralled the ball and in one motion, flipped it in just before the buzzer sounded for the Pacers' 88-86 win.

"We were told to just get the last shot, make sure there was no chance they could get a rebound and throw one up," Hill said. "Once I knew Stuck was taking it, I just wanted to get as close as possible to the rim and have a chance to tip it in."

The first 47 minutes and 59 seconds of the game, Hill did not have a good night. He missed most of his shots, made poor passes for the most turnovers on the team and his last mistake – a stolen pass by Hornets center Al Jefferson led to Charlotte tying the score, 79-79, with 4:09 remaining. Through much of the game, Hill looked every bit of a second-year guy making only his 12th career NBA start.

That all changed in one second – or really, 1.3 seconds.

"With so many guys out and especially with Paul (George) being out, it's going to be different guys every night," Roy Hibbert said. "It wasn't (Hill's) night offensively but he kept playing through it and it shows a lot."

To win Wednesday, the Pacers had to pass around the collection plate for contributions, like reserve bigs Lavoy Allen and Ian Mahinmi doing the dirty work and finishing with 15 rebounds between them. Hibbert provided 18 points and 11 rebounds and Luis Scola pounded away for 15 and 7 of his own. But in the end, Hill had to catch an airball, and contort his back for a layup over his head for the Pacers to improve to 5-7 on the season.

Like all the other 14,748 people in the seats and nine other players on the court, Hill watched Stuckey work in isolation beginning with 18 seconds on the clock against the Hornets' Lance Stephenson. The crossover, the stepback, the launch, and the ball errantly missing the mark as if it was pulled wide left by some invisible force. But Hill noticed something awry quicker than most everyone else, especially Henderson who was inserted into the game strictly for defensive purposes.

Hill crashed, Henderson just reacted. Henderson fouled, Hill flipped in a soft reverse layup in spite of the reach.

"I definitely feel like I got fouled," Hill said of Henderson trying to grab his arms. "That probably propelled me to throw it up a little bit more and I feel like he helped me, so we both got a game winner."

The offensive rebound, the Pacers' 14th of the night, sealed the team's fourth win in five games. Something has been clicking for the Pacers as they break a losing streak in Miami, close out in Chicago and now will themselves to a win despite a lackluster shooting night (2 of 15 from 3-pointers and only a 66.7 percentage at the foul line).

"We talked about this at halftime, we were shooting the ball horribly," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "We talked about, these are the games you got to learn how to win. When you're not shooting the ball well, still find a way, do other things, find a way to win the game. Final play exemplified that."

As a defensive unit, the Pacers held most of the Hornets in check, including former teammate Stephenson who missed 8 of 12 shots and finished with 10 points.

While much of Stephenson's night was self inflicted – he depended on too many bad shots on the perimeter – it must be mentioned that Hill stayed in front and played man-on-man defense against him. Just as Hill has every tough wing assignment this season. Even more impressive, Hill has become the middle linebacker of the defense – a role once controlled by the team's rock, David West. It's Hill who's doing the most talking during the sets, even as he defends on the perimeter where the action mostly begins. Again, this is a second-year player new to NBA life and yet, he has taken on this leadership persona.

Shouldn't this surprise anyone?

"Yes and no," Vogel said. "Yes, that a second-year player would do that but no when it comes to Solomon Hill."

"From the time we interviewed him before the draft, it was glaring that he was a very mature guy," Vogel continued. "The way he carried himself was as impressive to us as anything he did on the basketball court, so to see him show a leadership role this early is not surprising to me."

Mahinmi has seen other rookies enter the Pacers locker room as juvenile young men or too shy to talk, but Hill was different.

"He didn't conduct himself like a rookie. He was calm," Mahinmi remembered, "You could have a conversation with him about other stuff."

On the day of his pre draft interview at Kilroy's, Hill showed up confident and ready. He didn't need to wear a suit – it would've looked weird as the only person in a three-piece ordering bread sticks. Hill simply acted the part as a professional the best way he knew how. And the Pacers picked up on this composure, knowing even then that Hill was a player capable of nights like Wednesday.

"At the moment it went in, it shows you play the whole game, 48 minutes, it comes down to that," Hill said. "Just to be able to mentally stay in it no matter how many shots you made, how many shots you missed. Just stay with it. I could've easily given up on the play and let the ball drop but it goes to show you that we have to battle for 48 minutes."

Follow Star reporter Candace Buckner on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.

Suns at Pacers, 7 p.m. Saturday, FSI