12-5 overall, 4-2 Big Ten<\/a>) found its shooting touch after making one of its first 10 three-pointers, going on to bury nine of its next 14. The Bruins also made all 21 free throws.<\/p>\nThe Bruins were playing their third consecutive game without Clark, who injured his hamstring during the second half of the team\u2019s loss to Iowa earlier this month. UCLA coach Mick Cronin said he considered Clark doubtful for the game against Ohio State on Saturday while providing a glimmer of hope by acknowledging that Clark \u201clooked good in shootaround.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penn State also found itself down a player late in the first half when leading scorer Freddie Dilione V suffered an apparent right ankle injury and departed, never to return. Guard Dominick Stewart led the Nittany Lions (9-8, 0-6) with 16 points.<\/p>\n
There were some other positives for the Bruins on the way to a second consecutive victory. Backup center Steven Jamerson II continued to provide some badly needed hustle, grabbing eight rebounds \u2014 five on the offensive end \u2014 to go with his eight points. He also forced a traveling violation on Penn State\u2019s Melih Tunca by staying in front of him amid multiple moves.<\/p>\n
Another big boost came from redshirt freshman guard Eric Freeny. After missing the first six three-pointers of his career, Freeny confidently buried two shots from long range, grabbed three rebounds and played tight defense while earning 22 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n
But the biggest lift unquestionably came from Perry, his rise steadying a team still trying to find consistency.<\/p>\n
After scoring 15 points in his first start in place of Clark and 16 in his second, Perry nearly matched those showings combined against the Nittany Lions. Along the way, he became the third Bruin to score at least 30 points in a game this season, joining Clark and Bilodeau.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got him to a point now where he\u2019s not hesitating, you know, as an offensive player,\u201d Cronin said, \u201cand I think that matters and it\u2019s huge for him and he\u2019s just got to keep doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did Cronin go about doing that?<\/p>\n
\u201cI yell at guys when they don\u2019t shoot the ball \u2014 you end up with a turnover,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cShoot it. Let it fly, man; it might go in. You\u2019ve got to let it fly. You can\u2019t be timid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perry said he also got a confidence boost from his parents, Trent Perry II and Jessica Oliva, both of whom are coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been preaching, \u2018Just stay confident, things are going to come your way, keep playing defense, keep being enthusiastic, and the offense will come,\u2019 \u201d Perry said. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he met with two reporters afterward, a smile rarely leaving his face, Perry said he couldn\u2019t remember how he sustained a nasty cut on his right elbow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea,\u201d he said, glancing at the bloodied gash. \u201cThat\u2019s a great question.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few moments later, Dent walked past the group, his eyes locked on Perry, his arms raised in celebration of his teammate\u2019s big night. Perry smiled once more, half a season still in front of him, his best possibly still to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATE COLLEGE, Pa.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0In the final minutes, Trent Perry absorbed a hard foul that sent him tumbling to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":517264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[32072,1582,276,230690,161639,124538,154128,2961,224,5337,230691,116949,5835,449,51379,209311,3007,78355,223887,2501],"class_list":{"0":"post-517263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bruins","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-donovan-dent","12":"tag-final-minute","13":"tag-first-half","14":"tag-home-game","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-melih-tunca","19":"tag-nittany-lions","20":"tag-penn-state","21":"tag-point","22":"tag-second-half","23":"tag-shot-clock","24":"tag-team","25":"tag-three-pointer","26":"tag-trent-perry","27":"tag-ucla"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115897628370978183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}