Fullerton Runs Into More Trouble on the Road : College basketball: Titans lose their fifth game in a row as Utah State rolls to a 103-71 victory.

Cal State Fullerton’s conference season began with two road victories, but lately the Titans have been going downhill faster than the Utah State mascot, who rides a plastic snow disc from the top of the Spectrum down the stairs to the court during halftime.

The Titans, who have lost nine of their last 11 Big West Conference games, dropped their fifth in a row Saturday night as Utah State rolled to a 103-71 victory in front of 8,157 who were “treated” to a foul fest and the resulting free-throw shooting exhibition.

Fifty fouls were committed in the game, 28 by the Titans (6-15, 4-9). Utah State made 31 of 40 free throws, but the Aggies would have won by a point if they had missed all 40.

“We weren’t able to defend them,” Fullerton Coach Bob Hawking said. “They totally controlled us inside.”

The Aggies (16-4, 10-2) made nine of their first 11 shots, were shooting 70% from the floor midway through the second half and finished with a season-high .673 field-goal percentage. Guard Corwin Woodard and forward Silas Mills combined to make 18 of 22 shots from the field. Woodard would have been a perfect nine for nine had he not missed a three-point attempt with three seconds left.

“Mills is a big-time player and we don’t have anyone who can defend a player of that caliber at this time,” Hawking said.

Mills, who had three dunks and 21 points Saturday night, scored 23 with five dunks in Thursday night’s rout of Irvine.

“We’ve got a really good rhythm going right now, both myself and the team,” Mills said. “I’ve decided I’ve just got to come out and run hard, play hard and let my scoring take care of itself.”

Utah State led, 47-38, at halftime and turned the game into a blowout when the Titans made only one of their first 16 shots after the intermission.

“I thought we put out a fairly good effort in the first half,” Hawking said, “but then we came out with one of our typical offensive lulls and that’s when it got out of hand.”

The game was the second of a five-games-in-nine-days regimen for Utah State, which plays host to New Mexico State (7-3 in the Big West) on Monday night. But the Aggies can’t be accused of looking ahead to New Mexico State. They beat Irvine and Fullerton by an average of 30 points.

“I was really pleased with our effort,” Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy said. “Good teams will extend a large lead. It’s great to have been able to rest (center Eric) Franson and (guard Roddie) Anderson the last two games.”

Franson, the conference’s leading scorer, scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in 25 minutes. Anderson played 26 minutes, made two of three shots for four points and had three assists.

Titan center Winston Peterson, who had not played or practiced since Monday because of strep throat, had to play 31 minutes. The Titans had only three healthy post players after DeVaughn Wright was forced to return home after Thursday night’s game at Reno because of recurring intestinal problems.

“Winston played sick, but he showed a lot of heart tonight,” Hawking said. “It would have been even worse without him.”

Peterson led Fullerton with 21 points and eight rebounds.