Trent Perry’s career night propels UCLA past Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Trent Perry is picking up the slack for the UCLA basketball team.

Perry scored a career-high 30 points, Tyler Bilodeau added 21 and UCLA rolled to a 71-60 victory over Penn State on Wednesday night.

Perry, again upping his game in the absence of teammate Skyy Clark, made four 3-pointers, shot 7 for 13 from the field and made all 12 of his free-throw attempts in surpassing his previous career best of 17 points. Bilodeau also hit four 3-pointers and made 7 of 13 field goals and all three shots from the line. Bilodeau matched a season high with nine of the Bruins’ 32 rebounds.

UCLA (12-5 overall, 4-2 Big Ten) ended the first half on a 12-2 run for a 29-23 lead at the break. The Bruins stretched the advantage to 47-39 with 13:44 to play before Penn State answered with a 10-0 surge for its only lead of the second half, 49-47, with 11:46 remaining. The Bruins answered with a 20-6 run – and held the hosts scoreless for nearly four minutes – to open a 67-54 lead with 3:16 to go and cruised from there.

Perry and Bilodeau ignited the pivotal run with back-to-back 3-pointers, and Perry connected on another during the critical stretch.

Perry scored 22 points and Bilodeau chipped in with 14 during the second half, when the Bruins shot 50% (12 for 24) from the floor and hit seven shots from behind the arc. They made all 21 of their free throws for the night.

Wednesday marked the second time in as many games that Perry led the Bruins in scoring, as he continued to pick up the slack with Clark sidelined by a hamstring injury he sustained in a Jan. 3 loss at Iowa.

Xavier Booker and Donovan Dent were scoreless for UCLA. Dent shot 0 for 6 from the floor while dealing with foul trouble and Booker was limited to 12 minutes.

Steven Jamerson II helped fill some of the scoring void with eight points off the bench. Jamerson also grabbed eight rebounds.

Outside shooting was pivotal. UCLA finished the game 10 for 26 from 3-point range. while Penn State shot 4 for 22.

Dominick Stewart scored 16 points to lead Penn State (9-8, 0-6), which has lost eight of its last nine games. Eli Rice added 14 points and Josh Reed scored 12.

Wednesday was UCLA’s first trip to Penn State. The Bruins beat the Nittany Lions, 78-54, at Pauley Pavilion last season. Penn State won the first matchup, a 74-69 victory in a 1991 NCAA Tournament first-round game at Syracuse’s Carrier Dome.

More to come on this story.

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UCLA plays at Ohio State on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.