Malik Hairston scored one field goal during the first 28 minutes of the game, but his performance in the final 12 minutes enabled Oregon to maintain a shot at reaching the coveted sixth place in the Pacific-10 Conference standings with a 73-61 victory over USC (16-10 overall, 7-8 Pac-10) Thursday. Hairston, who was held to two points on 1-of-5 shooting in the first half, made 5 of 6 second-half field goals en route to 18 total points. Hairston scored 16 of Oregon’s final 24 points.
“Malik Hairston just put on a show in the game for about six minutes or so where he was just unstoppable, he couldn’t miss,” Oregon coach Ernie Kent said in a broadcast interview.
With Oregon (13-15, 7-9) up 52-49 and 8:52 remaining, Hairston hit a trio of three-pointers followed by two free throws to keep the lead in the Ducks’ favor.
Oregon used a 10-5 run in the final 2:04 to close the game.
“I think we are growing and maturing a little bit in that aspect,” Hairston said in a broadcast interview. “At times we’ve panicked, but I think we are growing into a more veteran basketball team, understanding how to win to close out basketball games.”
What Hairston did late in the game for the Ducks, Ray Schafer provided early in the second half. Schafer, who went to the bench early in the game after picking up his second foul 2:05 after the tipoff, scored nine straight points in the second half.
“We ran one play, I think, eight straight minutes in a row,” Kent said. “It was just at Ray, at Ray, at Ray. He just made everything happen in the game, controlled the game in the second half and played a phenomenal game down here.”Schafer finished with 13 points.
Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks scored a season and game-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting. Brooks, who led both teams with 13 first-half points, hit a jumper with less than one minute remaining in the first half to tie the game at 27 and later drilled a three-pointer with 2.1 seconds in the first half to give Oregon a 30-27 halftime lead. The Ducks never trailed the rest of the game.
“(He) shot the ball extremely well, played under control, played with poise,” Kent said after describing Brooks’ performance as superb.
Brooks made 4 of 5 three-pointers and ended with four assists and no turnovers.
Oregon nailed 65 percent of its second-half shots, making 16 of 25 field goals. The Ducks finished the game with a 55.8 percentage on field goal attempts and turned the ball over only nine times. They also held a 28-23 rebounding edge.
With the victory, Oregon has tied USC in the wins column. The Ducks face No. 19 UCLA (21-6, 11-4) Sunday before finishing the regular season at rival Oregon State (11-16, 4-12) on March 4.
“It was a big win for us to get down,” Kent said. “It gives us an opportunity to stay with them in terms of total number of victories. We need some help from Oregon State over here on Saturday.”
After hosting Oregon State Saturday, USC travels to Stanford (March 2) and California (March 4) to close out the regular season. The Cardinal (13-11, 9-6) and Bears (17-7, 11-4) are currently tied for fourth and first in the conference standings, respectively.
Oregon has an extra day off during its road trip before a shot at knocking off conference leader UCLA Sunday at 1 p.m.
UCLA’s sophomore backcourt leads the team with nearly half of its 67.8 points per game. Jordan Farmar (14.4 points per game) also leads the Pac-10 in assists at 5.5 per game, while Aaron Afflalo provides 16.9 points per game for the Bruins.
The Bruins defeated the Ducks 56-49 last month to give Oregon its second of six-straight losses.
Farmar scored a game-high 14 points as UCLA outscored Oregon 11-4 during the final 3:54 of the game. Oregon was held without a field goal for the final 7:51 of the game.
“It seems like we kind of just said, ‘Here UCLA, take this game,’ and we’re not going to do that this time,” Hairston said. “It’s going to be a well-fought game by both teams and I think we have a good chance of winning this basketball game against a great UCLA basketball team.”

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