Stanford escaped McArthur Court with another victory Thursday, this time a come-from-behind 57-56 win as Chris Hernandez drilled the game-winning three-pointer with 11.3 seconds remaining.
“He did what he is capable of doing, he knocked down a pressure shot in a pressure situation,” said Stanford coach Trent Johnson, whose team improves to 11-7 on the season and 7-3 in the Pacific-10 Conference. “He’s nice to have. He’s nice to have on your side, that’s for sure.”
Oregon’s (10-12, 4-6 Pacific-10) leading scorer Malik Hairston, who ended with a team-high 23 points, said Hernandez made a “tough shot.”
“He’s a veteran basketball player, he’s a good shooter, he’s a very confident shooter and he has those guys screening for him like crazy,” Hairston added. “He made a very tough shot over maybe two or three sets of hands jumping at him. He just made a tough shot to put his team over the shot.”
Hernandez, who finished with 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting, scored the Cardinal’s final eight points in the closing two minutes.
After Hairston made one of the more athletic plays of the night, tipping in a shot by Brandon Lincoln that was blocked, Hernandez answered with a three-pointer to cut the deficit to one possession with exactly two minutes remaining.
Hairston made a jumper on the Ducks’ ensuing possession to boost the lead to 56-52, but with 1:44 on the clock, that was the last time Oregon’s score would change.
Oregon’s Ivan Johnson missed a “point-blank layup,” according to Oregon coach Ernie Kent, and fouled out when he made contact with Hernandez after the rebound. Hernandez made both free throws with 37 seconds remaining. Aaron Brooks, who led the Pac-10 in assist-to-turnover ratio prior to the game, was fouled with 29.5 seconds to go, but missed the first free throw of a one-on-one.
“Aaron put his head down because he knows he is a good free-throw shooter,” Hairston said. “I know for a fact that Aaron didn’t choke. Aaron is a tough basketball player. But it’s one of the times he missed a free throw. It happens, the game went on.”
Following Hernandez’s three to take the lead, the Ducks had two more chances for the win. However, neither trip produced a shot. Brooks pushed the ball down the court, but turned the ball over. Stanford’s Matt Haryasz picked up the loose ball and was fouled by Brooks with three seconds remaining. Haryasz missed the first free throw of a one-on-one and Leunen called a timeout after grabbing the rebound with 2.4 seconds on the clock.
Leunen inbounded the ball to Brooks near midcourt, but as he was turning the corner around two defenders, the ball deflected off his foot and out of bounds with one-tenth of a second remaining.
“A free throw away from winning the game, a no foul away from winning the game and obviously two turnovers down the stretch from winning the game,” Kent said.
Haryasz finished with a game-high 24 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots.
The loss was the fourth in a row for Oregon, but it was hard to imagine after the first eight minutes of the game. The Ducks led 22-10 following a Hairston three-pointer that sent the crowd of 8,840 into a roar 7:42 after the tipoff. Hairston made half of those early points.
However, Stanford used an 18-2 run over the course of the next 9:58 to grab the lead. Hairston hit a free throw and a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions to tie the game at 28 and Brooks made an off-balance layup with 1:07 remaining in the first half to give the Ducks a 30-29 halftime lead.
“We know we need to play 40 minutes,” Hairston said. “We play in spurts.”
Ducks play Bears SaturdayCalifornia invades Mac Court Saturday at 5 p.m. to face the Ducks for the second time this season.
“We go into every game thinking it is a must-win,” Hairston said. “We have to fight even harder, understand that free throws are big and taking care of the basketball is big.”
Ayinde Ubaka scored a career-high 29 points the first time the Ducks and Bears met this season, as Cal pulled away with a 77-66 victory Jan. 5. Cal jumped to a 15-5 lead within the first four minutes as the lead hovered around 10 for most of the night. The win catapulted the Bears to the top of the conference standings at 3-0. Leon Powe added 27 points.
Cal (13-6, 7-3) boasts a sophomore backcourt, led by the 6-foot-8, 240-pound Powe, who leads the Pac-10 in rebounding and is second in scoring.
“As long as we don’t let him have a monster, monster game, he’s going to get his points,” Kent said of Powe, who grabs 10.4 rebounds per game. “If we can make sure we do a good job of eliminating some of those other players than maybe we can do a better job of containing and controlling to have a chance to win the game.”
Powe averages 19.2 points per game; six-foot-4 Omar Wilkes and 6-foot-11 DeVon Hardin also put their share of points on the board, averaging nearly double figures at 9.3 and 8.5 points, respectively.
While more than half of Cal’s 71-plus points-per-game average comes from the big men, starting guards Ubaka and Richard Midgley average in double figures as well. Ubaka puts up 15 points per game followed by Midgley with 10.1.
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