Titans Add to Irvine’s Tale of Woe : College basketball: Anteaters, losers of 11 in a row, score 14 in the first half and Fullerton coasts to 82-55 victory.

Lose 11 in a row in college football and you most likely have a winless season, but at least it’s over. Bill Mulligan and his UC Irvine basketball team have to endure 10 more games.

By halftime against Cal State Fullerton Thursday, Irvine had scored 14 points, fewer than any of Mulligan’s 10 Irvine teams ever had.

And long before the final buzzer of Fullerton’s 82-55 victory in front of 3,126 in Titan Gym, Irvine was assured of its 11th consecutive loss. It tied the school record, set in 1980 under Coach Tim Tift, now an Irvine radio announcer who will watch from the sideline when the Anteaters go for the record against Fresno State in the Bren Center next Thursday.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Mulligan said. “What can I say? I never thought it would happen. . . . I used to call guys and write them letters (of condolence during bad seasons),” he said. “Now I’ve got guys calling me.”

His team is now 2-16 and 0-9 in the Big West Conference. What’s more--or less--the Anteaters are only four losses shy of another school record--20 losses in a season, set by the same team that lost 11 in a row.

The occasional cries of “Help, help!” from the Irvine bench Thursday night were meant as directions for the Anteater defense.

But they pretty much describe the situation for the Anteater basketball team. Irvine needs help, and right now, there’s just no help in sight.

Not only did they set the record for lowest halftime score, trailing, 38-14 at intermission, but they also set a season low for field-goal percentage (29%) and fell only one turnover shy of the season high of 25.

“You hear about this kind of stuff happening, but you never think you could be in the midst of it,” said Irvine guard Rod Palmer, who scored only three points in 37 minutes, missing nine of 10 field-goal attempts and committing eight turnovers. “We shot well all week in practice, but when it came down to the game, we couldn’t do it.”

Only substitutes Jeff Von Lutzow, who scored a career-high 24 points, and Dylan Rigdon, who scored 10, had much success for Irvine.

Jeff Herdman made only one of 10 shots, and Ricky Butler only one of nine. Palmer, Herdman and Butler combined were three for 29 for the Anteaters.

It was the sort of game in which Fullerton could make the plays.

On one, Wayne Williams dove for a loose ball, passing as he started to slide to Mark Hill, who relayed it to Cedric Ceballos for a dunk.

On another, late in the game, Bruce Bowen, a reed-slender reserve, went up for a driving dunk. Von Lutzow fouled him hard, but Bowen swept his right arm around for a looping bank shot. And he made the free throw, too.

And it was the sort of game in which Irvine could not make the plays.

There was the one in which Rigdon got the ball at one end of the court, put it behind his back and drove furiously upcourt. He passed to Mike Foster, who put on a little move for the layup. And the ball went into the cylinder, and came back out.

Fullerton Coach John Sneed professed a bit of worry about this game.

“You won’t believe this, but I was concerned about tonight,” Sneed said, pointing to Irvine’s one-point loss to Cal State Long Beach and a seven-point loss to UC Santa Barbara. “They’ve had their nights when one shooter was really on. They had some good open shots in the first half. We were lucky they didn’t go down.”

The Titans (10-7, 4-4) jumped to leads of 10-1 and 26-5.

After leading by 24 at halftime, they scored the first seven points of the second half. Irvine, meanwhile, missed nine shots in a row before Von Lutzow scored with four minutes gone.

“At least he can score,” Mulligan said. “He doesn’t defend very well. He’s not perfect, but at least he can score.”

Despite the lead, Sneed kept the press on until five minutes remained, when Ceballos finally left the game for good.

“We did that not so much to run the score up but to slow them down bringing the ball up,” Sneed said. “We retreat well out of the press into our zone.”

Garbage time finally came in earnest with 2:27 left when Tom Parada, a 5-6, 130-pound walk-on, entered the game.

“It was a lot of fun, said Ceballos, who led the Titans with 22 points. “Especially the last two minutes when Tom and the reserves came in.”

Mulligan could only watch as another loss ran its course--Pepperdine, Loyola, Utah State, San Jose State, Fresno State, Pacific, Long Beach State, New Mexico State, Nevada Las Vegas, Santa Barbara and now Fullerton.

“I thought John Sneed was very nice to us,” Mulligan said. “I’m tired of guys being nice to us.”

Notes

Seven National Basketball Assn. scouts requested credentials to Thursday’s game, among them Laker General Manager Jerry West, who was in attendance. . . . Fullerton reserve Ron Caldwell, who missed three games because of a disciplinary suspension, played in the second half and scored eight points. . . . John Sykes, once Fullerton’s starting center, continues to play in a reserve role, as he has since illness and an eye infection sidelined him.

ANTEATER WOES

The game-by-game record of UC Irvine’s school record-tying 11-game losing streak:

Date Opponent Score Dec. 19 Pepperdine 81-71 Dec. 21 Loyola of Chicago(H) 78-72 Jan. 2 Utah State*(H) 80-70 Jan. 4 San Jose State*(H) 75-69 Jan. 7 Fresno State* 67-57 Jan. 9 Pacific* 70-58 Jan. 11 CS Long Beach*(H) 49-48 Jan. 13 New Mexico State*(H) 88-75 Jan. 18 Nevada Las Vegas* 103-67 Jan. 20 UC Santa Barbara*(H) 73-66 Jan. 25 CS Fullerton* 82-55

* Big West Conference game

(H): Home games