BIG WEST BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Hill Not in Dumps Over Slump : Titans: Cal State Fullerton guard remains upbeat despite struggling with his shot in the second half of the season.

It all seems so long ago now, the time when most of Mark Hill’s shots were falling through the net, and most of Cal State Fullerton’s games were victories.

Back in the middle of December, Hill tried 12 three-point baskets in a game against Cal State Northridge. The senior guard made eight of them, breaking Fullerton’s single-game record, a record that already belonged to him. He scored 29 points in that game, and the Titans won, running their record to 5-0.

But in the season’s late going, it has been all downhill.

Fullerton’s hopes of going to the NCAA tournament became hopes of going to the National Invitation Tournament, which in turn became hopes of a winning season. Now, the Titans are left with a 12-15 record, hoping to break their seven-game losing streak tonight in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament. They will be trying to do that against UC Irvine, the team that lost 15 consecutive games during the season, including a 27-point loss to Fullerton, and beat the Titans by 18 points in their next-to-last regular-season game.

If Hill were at the top of his game, it might have been different, but he has been up and down all season.

He stumbled to a one-of-15 performance in an overtime loss to UC Santa Barbara, then hit eight of nine in a victory over Utah State two games later.

He had back-to-back 18-point games, then played Santa Barbara again and made only one of 11 shots, scoring three points, the lowest total of his college career.

Some games, on some shots, it would seem as if he had found his touch again. At other times, he appeared unsettled, and his shots bounded off the rim.

Hill cannot explain it any more than anyone else. He puts in extra work, takes extra shooting practice. And then, like everyone else, he waits to see if he can shoot as he once did.

“You can’t pinpoint it,” he said. Which makes it a lot like the Titans’ late-season losing streak.

“I can’t say anything,” Hill said. “I can’t conceive (what has happened.) That’s part of basketball. You’ve got to take winning and losing together.”

Hill says he just keeps shooting, and that he does not worry about it. That is one of the struggles of a shooter. Trying to fight a slump can be like a trapped animal trying to fight its way out of a net: The bind often gets worse.

“I don’t know what you do with a shooter,” said John Sneed, Fullerton’s coach. “You can’t scold ‘em. All you can do is support them. You can’t make them gun-shy, looking over their shoulder every time they take a shot. If your shooter has the ball, and it’s a good shot, you have to let them pull up and take the shot.”

Hill will leave Fullerton with his name beside every three-point record the Titans’ keep--every single-game record, every season record, every career record. He has made 141 of 355 attempts in two seasons.

Others watch, and wonder how he can keep from being frustrated, bound in this slump.

“It’s not a slump to me,” Hill said. “The shot is there. It’s not like I’m shooting air balls. It’s going in and out. I’m going to keep shooting and I’ll keep on shooting till the buzzer rings and there are no more games.”

That could be as soon as tonight, and in all likelihood will be no later than Friday night, when the winner meets third-ranked Nevada Las Vegas in the second round.

“We’re definitely going to win,” Hill said. “It’s our opening game. We’re not just going to come out and not want to play. That second game (against Irvine) we came out not wanting to play. . . . We just want to play and continue playing in the tournament. We’re capable of beating any team in the conference. We just want to show that.”