FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-2, 0-0 SEC) notched a 92-62 win over the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (4-10, 1-2 Horizon) on Monday night in their final tuneup before conference play starts.
Coming out of an extended break after the Christmas holiday, Arkansas looked sluggish and disjointed in the first half. The Hogs turned the ball over nine times in the first 20 minutes and they gave up 30 points in the paint to the Golden Grizzlies.
As the Razorbacks have done many times this season, they pulled away in the second half. A big part of that was the play of Boogie Fland, who scored just one point in the first but exploded for 23 in the second.
Arkansas also got a full-scale effort from Adou Thiero, who had 20 points in the game and tacked on six assists, six rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
The non conference slate has now come to a close and the gauntlet of the Southeastern Conference schedule starts Saturday against No. 1 Tennessee. Here's some of HawgBeat's takeaways from Monday's win...
Adou Thiero, Karter Knox put the team on their backs in the first half
Thiero was a constant for the Arkansas offense for the entire game, but his impact was most felt in the first half. He had 16 of the team's 42 points and was relentless in getting to the rim and drawing fouls.He calmed down in the second half and only had six points, but he also brought in three rebounds and three assists in the second half.
"My teammates was just finding me in the open areas and telling me no one’s guarding me so go score, so that’s just what I did," Thiero said of his performance. "They did a great job at finding me at those elbows and everything. That was just the gameplan all night."
By that same token, Karter Knox put in a great performance on Monday. He finished with 17 points and connected three times from deep. 10 of those points came in the first half, and five came within seconds of each other. After he hit his first three of the game, he came up with a steal and took it all the way home for a layup.
"He works really hard, but here’s the biggest thing — he and Billy (Richmond) both — when you watch them, what do you see?" Arkansas head coach John Calipari said postgame. "Energy, effort, diving on the floor, mixing it up, good size, long. You know what I’m saying? They’re both. But the biggest thing they give you is a spirited effort. Their energy is contagious. Both of them."
Three-point defense was good, interior defense was not
Oakland likes to pull from three often, so it makes sense that the Razorbacks would put extra emphasis on guarding the perimeter in this game. What didn't make sense was how easily the Golden Grizzlies got points inside.
Arkansas gave up 42 points in the paint to Oakland, even though the Hogs outsized the Golden Grizzlies. Oakland's Allen Mukeba was strong in the paint and finished with 17 points and Buru Naivalurua had 18, all of which came inside the arc.
It's worth noting Calipari said after the game Jonas Aidoo was sick and he "probably shouldn't have played him," but Arkansas gave up way too many easy looks on Monday night. It did get better in the second half, as Oakland only had 12 points in the paint in the final 20 minutes. Thiero said the Hogs got more aggressive inside.
"We took a little bit more pride in our post defense," Thiero said. "Kind of just keeping them out of the paint, showing fight and showing them they were going to have to work for these points."
A little bit of a post-break slump
It'd been nine days since the Razorbacks took the floor at Bud Walton Arena, and the team had several days off for the Christmas holiday too, which likely contributed to their first half struggles. It wasn't so much that Oakland overpowered the Razorbacks, the Golden Grizzlies were just taking advantage of their mistakes.The Hogs turned the ball over nine times in the first half and Oakland scored seven points off those. There were also several miscues defensively that led to easy buckets for Oakland.
A switch was flipped in the second half, though, and Arkansas slowly but surely pulled away from the Golden Grizzlies. A big part of that was a barrage of threes in the six minutes — three from Boogie Fland and one from D.J. Wagner — that really lopsided the score.
Boogie Fland comes alive in second half
Speaking of Fland, he got hit in the eye in the first half, which Calipari said affected his ability to shoot in the first half. He only had one point that came off a free throw in the first half and was a dismal 0-for-6 from the field and 0-of-3 from deep.
"I’m not trying to force it," Fland said after the game. "The three ball is kind of like the game nowadays, so it started inside out. Keep playing the course of the game and I’m not trying to force it like that because it’s not going to work."
Something changed in the second half, though. Fland started to find good shots inside the arc — a layup, then a midrange jumper — before he really started to heat up.
He hit five threes in the final 15 minutes of the game, and three of those came as Arkansas was making its final push to put the game away. The Hogs led by 13 before he hit two in a row. Then D.J. Wagner got in on the fun and hit one of his own, and Fland hit one with 57 second s left to give Arkansas a 90-62 lead.
"What he's done in practice has been unbelievable," Calipari said. "From where he was three weeks ago, where he is now, before Christmas, when we had Camp Cal, he was good. Comes back from Christmas, was even better. And now it starts, you play that way. So I'm just saying every day he got to win. Every practice. Win."
