Young conjuring most of his magic after halftime

CORVALLIS, ORE. —  You could call Nick Young “the magician,” considering his charmed touch during the final minutes of recent games.

Yet, in the first half, it seems as if USC’s junior swingman has done mostly disappearing acts.

In his last four games, Young has scored 23 first-half points and 61 after intermission. Young said this was partly by design, that he was scoring 72.6% of his points after halftime by lulling defenses to sleep in the first 20 minutes and then capitalizing in the clutch.

“I make them think that they’ve got me guarded and all that, but I’m just figuring the game out, trying to get my teammates involved,” said Young, whose fadeaway jump shot with 20 seconds left Thursday was the go-ahead basket in the Trojans’ 84-82 victory over No. 16 Oregon. “Then, when it’s time to take over, I just go out there and play.”

Coach Tim Floyd attributed the scoring discrepancy to teams’ having difficulty sustaining their defensive effort on Young in the second half.

“Sometimes we don’t credit defenses for their knowledge and their preparation and their awareness coming out early to him,” Floyd said. “As games progress, those challenges become more and more difficult when you’re playing against good players.”

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USC could easily be 0-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference instead of 2-1 because of shaky free-throw shooting down the stretch.

The Trojans’ free-throw shooting became especially egregious during the second half against Oregon, when they missed four of five in a 25-second span, allowing the Ducks to rally from a late seven-point deficit. But the misses became moot when Oregon guard Aaron Brooks, given a chance to tie the score with 1.4 seconds left, made only one of three free throws.

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TODAY

at Oregon State, 3 p.m., FSN Prime

Site -- Gill Coliseum, Corvallis, Ore.

Radio -- 710.

Records -- USC 12-4, 2-1; Oregon State 8-7, 0-2.

Update -- USC is trying to complete consecutive road sweeps of the Oregon schools for the first time since the 1970-71 and 1971-72 seasons. A victory over the Beavers would give USC its best start in Pac-10 play since it won its first five conference games during the 2001-02 season.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com