Game story: Arkansas battles back from 15-point deficit for roller-coaster 89-87 win over No. 14 Michigan in Jimmy V Classic in NYC

By Kevin McPherson

Arkansas had never led in two previous contests that equated to Quad-1 losses, but that trend took a positive turn on Tuesday in the Big Apple as the Razorbacks proved they had a pulse in big-stage games with an 89-87 roller-coaster win over 14th-ranked Michigan in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Freshman guard Boogie Fland had a game-high 20 points to go with 7 assists and 4 rebounds in his return to his hometown as he led five Hogs in double-figure scoring, and Arkansas overcame a 15-point first-half deficit on its way to building an 18-point second-half lead — 80-62 with 9:45 to play — before holding off a late Michigan rally in a contest that was down to a one-point Hog advantage, 88-87, with 1:28 to play.

Fland’s two free throws with 4:48 to go halted a 12-0 Wolverines run to give the Hogs an 82-74 lead, but Michigan kept chipping away and trailed by only four points, 84-80, with 3:01 remaining when senior guard Nelly Davis scored on a driving layup-and-1 three-point play that sent the Razorbacks to an 87-80 advantage at that point.

Michigan cobbled together a 7-1 spurt to pull within 88-87 with 1:28 to go. The Hogs benfitted from a Wolverines’ dead-ball turnover with 0:34 showing followed by a blocked shot in the paint and defensive rebound by junior forward Trevon Brazile with 14 seconds remaining. Brazile was fouled and made only 1-of-2 free throws to extend the Arkansas lead to 89-87, but on its final possession that included calling a timeout with 3.7 seconds remaining, Michigan settled for an off-balance, fadeaway 16-foot shot attempt by guard Roddy Gayle, Jr., that would have tied the game but was nowhere near going into the basket as time expired.

Arkansas dominated the action spanning the final 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, making plays at both ends — physical defensive stops in the paint, blocking or altering shots, forcing turnovers and finishing in transition, scoring inside and out off good ball movement in halfcourt offense — to ignite the 33-point swing that flipped a 31-16 first-half defict into the aforementioned 80-62 lead with 9:45 remaining in the second half. But the Hogs reverted to some of their previous issues in losses — multiple unforced turnovers, several stagnant-and-empty offensive possessions, not blocking out on the defensive glass, getting lost on defense, not cutting off drives — which aided Michigan’s late charge.

“That was a great game for you to watch and for fans to watch, but to coach it,” first-year Arkansas coach John Calipari said after his team’s nail-biting victory. “To go down 15. To go up 18. To have five or six plays in a row, they don’t go away, I do two of the dumbest things I’ve done. We switched the offense, which we needed to, but the two dumbest things, we ran an out-of-bounds play to run it to a guy who’s just a good free-throw shooter, not great. That was me! That even shows you, even having experience, you can do some dumb things sometimes. And then the last play, out-of-bounds on the baseline, I changed from an easy play to something more difficult. Why I did it? I thought I was running something I could do. I told them after, I did two things, they fought and I almost cost them the game.

“Hopefully, I’ll help them win more games than I’m going to cause them to lose, but that one, they saved me because I would have been in the throws of ‘What in the world was I thinking?'”

The Razorbacks (8-2, NCAA NET No. 49) were coming off two come-from-behind wins last week — 76-73 over Miami on the road in the SEC / ACC Challenge on Tuesday after trailing by 11 points, and 75-60 over Texas-San Antonio at home on Saturday after trailing by 8 points. They’ve now won three consecutive games (that includes two victories away from home) as part of a 7-wins-in-their-last-8-contests stretch, and they improved to 2-2 away from home (the latter includes a 1-2 mark in neutral-site tilts and 1-0 in true road games). Arkansas is a perfect 6-0 at home inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

The win over the Wolverines (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten, NCAA NET No. 25) snapped Michigan’s seven-game winning streak while marking the Hogs’ first win of the season against a ranked team as well as their first Q1 win in three tries. In their previous two Q1 outings, Arkansas never led against Baylor (a 72-67 loss) or Illinois (a 90-77 loss).

The Razorbacks are now 1-2 in Q1 games, 0-0 in Q2, 3-0 in Q3, and 4-0 in Q4.

Arkansas improved to 4-4 all-time vs. Michigan, which includes a 76-68 win in the 1993-94 NCAA Tournament Elite Eight that sent the Hoop Hogs to the Final Four, which led to the UA men’s basketball program’s first and only national championship.

Next up for the Razorbacks is another neutral-site game — although the NCAA NET algorithm will calculate it as an Arkansas home game — against in-state Division 1 foe Central Arkansas at 3 p.m. CT on Saturday at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.

“It was nice,” Fland said of his big game in his hometown. “I had over 100 people here, so just for them to be able to see me play in person… Most of my career, they haven’t been able to see me. Especially being the first time at the Garden, and we get the win, it’s not more special than that.”

The Hogs also got huge contributions from sophomore guard DJ Wagner (16 points — 14 in the second half — on 7-of-12 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3, to go with 5 assists and 3 rebounds); Brazile (season-high 15 points on 6-of-8 field goals, including 1-of-3 from 3, and 2-of-6 free throws to go with 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block off the bench); junior 3/4-combo forward Adou Thiero (13 points on 6-of-9 field goals, including 1-of-2 from 3, to go with 4 rebounds and 1 steal); and senior starting center Jonas Aidoo (11 points on 3-of-6 field goals and 5-of-8 free throws to go with a team-high 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals).

Davis — competing against his former Florida Atlantic head coach Dusty May (now first-year Michigan coach) and former FAU teammate and current Wolverine Vlad Goldin — finished with 6 points (all in the second half) to go with 4 rebounds and 1 assist. Freshman wing Karter Knox contributed 5 points (2-of-2 field goals, including 1-of-1 from 3) and 3 rebounds. Sophomore center Zvonimir Ivisic (ankle) sat out Arkansas’ home win over UTSA but returned against Michigan as he put in 3 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists in 9 minutes off the bench. Freshman wing Billy Richmond III played 1 minute and did not record any stats.

Arkansas had a poor first-half in terms of losing both the turnovers and points-off-turnovers battles before turning that around in the final 20 minutes as the Razorbacks ended up winning both (17-14 turnovers and 21-17 points-off-turnovers) as well as fastbreak scoring (10-4), total rebounds (34-32), offensive boards (12-8), second-chance-points (12-9), blocks (3-2), and steals (8-7). Michigan won points-in-the-paint (46-42), bench scoring (24-23), and assists (18-16).

The Razorbacks shot 33-of-66 from the field (50%), including 9-of-23 from 3 (39.1%), and 14-of-22 from the free throw line (63.6%). Michigan had a solid night shooting from the field with 34-of-59 field goals (57.6%), including 8-of-18 from 3 (44.4%). Like the Hogs, the Wolverines struggled at the free throw line with 11-of-18 on freebies (61.1%).

Arkansas started out with an 8-5 lead, but that faded quickly as Michigan got hot shooting inside and out with good ball movement and heady set-up passes as the Wolverines strung together a 21-4 run for a 26-12 lead, and that grew to a 15-point advantage, 31-16, with 8:31 to go before halftime.

But the Hogs outscored the Wolverines 29-18 to close out the first half trailing only 49-45 at the break, and they kept the good vibes flowing to open the second half using an 11-0 run to take their biggest lead at the time at 56-49. That would swell to an 18-point Arkansas lead twice before Michigan made its final push.

Goldin (17 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks), Danny Wolf (14 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists), and Will Tschetter (13 points), Gayle (13 points), and Nimari Burnett (10 points) led the production for Michigan.

Calipari started Aidoo, Wagner, Fland, Davis, and Thiero against Michigan.