Titans’ Hill Finds Lost Touch in 88-77 Victory

From the middle of January until late this week, Mark Hill was a shooting guard without a shooting touch.

Hill is a shooter and always has been. But for five games, most of his shots missed. He shot from three-point range, and made only five of 29. He shot off the dribble and off of passes. He shot standing still. He shot 77 times, and made only 22, not quite 29%.

But Hill found his touch Saturday in Cal State Fullerton’s 88-77 Big West Conference victory over Utah State before 2,700 in Titan Gym.

His first shot was from three-point range. His next was a 10-foot jump shot. Easy basket. Then a three-point shot, then another.

By halftime he had taken and made five shots--four of them from three-point range. Before he missed, he made eight in a row, finishing with 22 points on eight of nine shots, the only miss from three-point range. About the only shot he had any trouble with was from the free throw line, where he made only two of six.

“Everything is coming around,” said Hill, who spent extra hours this week searching for his lost touch. “I felt bad not only for the team, but from my standpoint also.”

Hill wasn’t the only Fullerton player hitting Saturday. The Titans shot 68.2%, making 30 of 44 shots and nine of 13 from three-point range.

“When they shoot the ball like that . . .” Utah State Coach Kohn Smith said.

Utah State trailed, 47-43, at halftime, but didn’t score a field goal for the first eight minutes of the second half.

There wasn’t a lot the Aggies could do, although they rallied from 17 points down in the second half to cut the deficit to eight points with 4:35 left and again with one minute left.

Fullerton (12-8, 6-5 in conference play) missed three of six free throws down the stretch, but Utah State couldn’t take advantage.

Cedric Ceballos, who has carried the Titans during Hill’s slump, scored 22 points, and Wayne Williams added 15 for the Titans.

Kendall Youngblood scored 15 for Utah State (11-11, 5-6), and Rich Jardine added 13.

The worst game of Hill’s slump came in an overtime loss to UC Santa Barbara on Monday, when he made one of 15 shots and scored a career-low six points.

Titan Notes

When Cedric Ceballos left the game for the first time with 4:46 left in the first half, it ended a stretch of 105 minutes 14 seconds he had played without rest over the past three games. Ceballos played every minute of the Titans’ overtime loss to UC Santa Barbara on Monday and of their overtime victory over San Jose State on Thursday. He played 36 minutes on Saturday.

Gary Patterson, who Coach Kohn Smith said required 12 stitches in his forehead after being head-butted by Chris Jeter during Utah State’s game against Nevada Las Vegas on Thursday, did not play. . . . John Sykes, who has started seven games at center for Cal State Fullerton, was not on the bench after missing practice without an excuse on Friday. Sykes has fallen out of the Titans’ plans after missing time with an eye infection and illness. Fullerton Coach John Sneed, who has been rather unconcerned by Sykes’ absence, said Sykes called him on Saturday. “He said he was kind of sick,” Sneed said. “I said I was kind of sorry.”