TODAY’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL GAMES : Titans Open PCAA Play at Fresno

December, which had seemed to hold little but gloomy potential for Cal State Fullerton, turned out mostly merry. Now it’s time to see what the new year--and the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. schedule--will bring.

The Titans will open PCAA play tonight at 7:30 in Fresno State’s Selland Arena against a young Bulldog team under first-year Coach Ron Adams.

Adams, longtime assistant to former Coach Boyd Grant, has a starting lineup consisting of four sophomores and a junior. The result thus far has been a team susceptible to the errors of youth. The Bulldogs (5-6) are shooting 43% and have made only 56% of their free throws. They are 5-1 in Selland Arena but 0-5 on the road.

Fullerton enters conference play with a considerably better record than Coach George McQuarn might have anticipated. Playing what McQuarn considered the most difficult nonconference schedule of his seven seasons at Fullerton, the Titans not only survived, they prospered. They went 7-2, logging victories over Texas Christian and Brigham Young at the BYU Tournament and wins at home over Pepperdine and Washington.

Their only losses were a 70-69 season-opening defeat at Texas Tech and last Monday night’s 72-71 loss to UCLA. Fullerton even made a brief appearence in a national poll, ranking 20th in last week’s UPI coaches’ poll.

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of friends on the coaches’ poll,” McQuarn said, smiling.

McQuarn said he hoped the game in a hostile environment at UCLA had helped prepare his team for tonight’s trip into Selland Arena, a PCAA pit. Junior guard Richard Morton, usually the Titans’ best outside shooter, made only 3 of 13 shots against the Bruins.

Fresno has had a few nights like that. Sophomore Rene Ebeltjes, a 6-foot 11-inch center from Holland, is averaging 7 points and 7.3 rebounds a game but is shooting only 38%. Ebeltjes had a career-high 12 rebounds in Fresno’s 61-54 victory over West Virginia last Tuesday at Fresno. West Virginia entered that game with a 7-1 record.

Sophomore Mike Mitchell, a former star at Santa Ana Mater Dei High School, is averaging 10.8 points and 4.7 rebounds after missing most of the early practices with a pulled hamstring.