Hogs’ Boogie Fland turns it on down stretch for win over Miami

MIAMI, Fla. — Maybe we finally got a breakout game from Boogie Fland in Miami. The Razorbacks’ freshman, who has shown flashes of what he can do, took over late for a 76-73 win in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

Fland made two free throws with 2:25 left to tie the game (71-71) and later drained a 3-pointer with 1:47 left to give the Razorbacks their first lead. After a Miami basket, Fland sealed the win with a jumper with 54 seconds left.

That’s what fans have been expecting for a month.

“Watching how we were playing in the first half, I just told him, I’m going to have to put the ball in your hands and you’re going to have to make plays, because he’s capable of doing it,” Hogs coach John Calipari said later.

Arkansas trailed at halftime, 40-32. Watching the first half, the margin could have been a lot bigger because the Hogs weren’t playing particularly well. The Razorbacks were 13-of-31 from the field (41.9 percent) and just 3-of-9 from deep (33.3 percent) in the first half, but went 17-of-31 overall (54.8 percent) and 8-of-14 from deep (57.1 percent) in the second half.

“For us to come back and grind it a little bit and play the way we had to play to win, because I told them we’re winning this game,” Calipari said. “I told them at halftime, I told them at every timeout, ‘If you’re not in here to win the game, sit on the bench.’

“That means you’re making easy plays. You’re not going nuts. We’re doing this together. It’s the only way we can win. All I told myself throughout the game, even down 8, 10, whatever we were down — some of the time I didn’t even look at the clock — ‘We’re going to have fun.’

“It’s my first year, trying to establish a culture, a new team, young kids. I’m going to have fun. I was having fun throughout the whole game. There was never… If we lost, we lost. Next. We won, we go home, we’re a little happier.”

Arkansas returns home to host UT-San Antonio on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. and the game will be televised on SEC Network+. You can also listen to the game on ESPN Arkansas 99.5 in Fayetteville, 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home. Fans can also listen online at HitThatLine.com.