Hairston provides hairy end

PULLMAN – The crowd at Friel Court was ready for a big win. So were the Cougars and their head coach, Dick Bennett.

As was Malik Hairston on the other side.

With his team trailing by four points with time winding away, Hairston drilled two 3-pointers – the first with 12 seconds left, the second with four-tenths of a second on the clock – to steal a 52-50 win for Oregon and suck the life out of the 5,740 once-boisterous fans.

“They’re stunned,” Bennett said of his team, which went 4-8 in games decided by three points or less last season and is 1-2 this year. “There wasn’t much I could say. I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry you have to keep going through this.’ These are maybe the growing pains. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. I can’t say whether any of this will pay off. We thought that it would from last year to this year and it hasn’t yet.”

Neither the Cougars (9-6, 2-4 Pac-10) nor the Ducks (10-8, 4-2) managed to wrest control of the game – the greatest lead all night was 11-6, for WSU – but the Cougars, playing their first game at home in 2006, seemed to have done so when Josh Akognon sank two free throws with 25 seconds left to create the 50-46 edge.

But Hairston managed to sink the first 3 when WSU played a zone and the Ducks had the right play called. When Ivory Clark missed two free throws with 10.7 seconds left, the stage was set for Hairston once again.

The ending was not without controversy. Oregon point guard Aaron Brooks drove down the lane on Kyle Weaver before kicking out to Hairston on the left baseline for the game-winner, but it appeared Brooks traveled on the way. No whistle blew, and Hairston calmly squared up and let fly.

“He looked like he got away with one,” Weaver said. “That’s just the way it goes.”

The Cougars have lost three consecutive conference games, and find themselves in an eighth-place tie with Oregon State, which comes to Pullman on Saturday.

Until the last 12 seconds, WSU had played well in many respects. Akognon scored another 18 points and continues to shoot well from the outside. Weaver had nine assists – seven in the first half – and added four steals.

But Oregon had strong individual performances, a primary reason the game remained so close for 40 minutes. Jordan Kent, having recently rejoined the basketball team after playing football, had scored just three points on the year.

Against WSU, he had 13 and 12 rebounds, the second time this athletic year he has sent a dagger through Cougars hearts. In November, Kent reeled in a key third-quarter touchdown grab, his only score of that season.

“We were lucky we got out of here with a win because they played a great game,” said Ernie Kent, Jordan’s father and Oregon’s head coach. “We just did a good job of making a few more plays than they did down the stretch.”

Sparked by the younger Kent, Oregon also dominated WSU on the glass, with a 39-22 edge.

The Ducks pulled down 16 offensive rebounds, as Bennett failed to find the right combination underneath.

“It’s at home. You’re up four with whatever time was left and you lose it,” the Cougars coach lamented.

“That’s been the story of our existence here. Almost, but not quite. … You just wonder if you’re ever going to win one.”

Oregon 52, Washington State 50

Percentages: FG .420, FT .500. 3-Point Goals: 3-15, .200 (Hairston 2-3, Lincoln 1-1, Oguchi 0-1, Leunen 0-1, Taylor 0-2, Brooks 0-7). Team Rebounds: 39. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 14 (Brooks 4). Steals: 2 (Brooks, Johnson). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .442, FT .571. 3-Point Goals: 4-9, .444 (Akognon 4-7, Weaver 0-1, Chavers 0-1). Team Rebounds: 22. Blocked Shots: 3 (Weaver, Clark, Cowgill). Turnovers: 7 (Weaver 3). Steals: 7 (Weaver 4). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Oregon 29, Washington State 27. A–5,740.