Postgame Talk: Career Night From Trent Perry Fuels UCLA Victory Over Penn State, 71-60
The Bruins got timely contributions from Perry and Tyler Bilodeau to overcome poor performances from other starters.
The good news is that UCLA won a conference game on the road. It doesn’t matter so much that the opponent is conference also-ran Penn State, but it does matter that the team was able to put together a comfortable win despite the efforts of three-fifths of the starting lineup.
Yes, the story of this game is Trent Perry, and we’ll get to him in a minute, but I really wanted to start with the performances of Donovan Dent, Xavier Booker, and Eric Dailey Jr. These three combined for two total points on 0-10 shooting to go with some mediocre effort on the floor. Dent played 30 minutes in large part due to the absence of Skyy Clark for a third-straight game (though he did go through warmups before this game, which might put him on track to play on Saturday), so the Bruins had to live with his general indifference on both ends of the court. There are reports that Dent was under the weather heading into this game, which would help explain the performance a bit, but in so many ways, this was just a continuation of a miserable season for Dent against tougher competition.
Dailey and Booker, meanwhile, were just miserable. Dailey missed all three of his shots from the field (all three-point attempts), and his two points came at the free-throw line. Worse, he had two turnovers to only one rebound and no assists, and played terrible defense at the same time. Booker had another in a stretch of absolutely terrible games, with the one positive you can take being that he had four rebounds in his 12 minutes.
Both players were clearly outplayed by their backups, Jamar Brown and Steven Jamerson, respectively, with Brown playing solid defense and Jamerson continuing his strong performance from the Maryland game in this one, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds in 24 minutes of work. Throw in an impressive outing from Eric Feeney, who had six points, three rebounds, and 22 minutes of solid defense, and the UCLA bench was a clear positive in this game.
Given that UCLA got nothing from three members of their starting lineup, you likely assumed the Bruins would lose, but Trent Perry and Tyler Bilodeau were not going to be denied. Let’s start with Bilodeau so we can save the best for last. Like Dent, Bilodeau was reported to have the flu going into this game, but if that was the case, you would not know it, as he finished with 21 points on 7-13 shooting to go with nine rebounds. We know Bilodeau can put the ball in the basket, but what was encouraging in this game was his defensive effort. It wasn’t perfect, but given his physical state heading into this game, the level of compete that Bilodeau showed was encouraging.
I’ve held off on this long enough: it’s time to talk about Trent Perry. Perry has truly come into his own these past few games with Clark out, and with so many other players continuing to scuffle, he has found himself carrying more of the offensive load. Perry is playing with loads of confidence, and he scored a career-high 30 points in this game on an efficient 7-13 shooting night while also going a perfect 12 for 12 from the free-throw line. Perry hit from all over the court, making four three-point attempts while scoring on little floaters near the basket. He chipped in four assists and three rebounds in his 38 minutes of work, playing all 20 minutes of the second half. Maybe most encouraging, Perry raised his game when his team needed him; 22 of his 30 points came in the second half to help stave off a final push by the Nittany Lions.
This is the type of performance UCLA fans have hoped for from Trent Perry when he came to campus last season. Perry is not the greatest athlete in the world, but he’s smart and crafty, and he’s got a great shot that he finally seems confident in. Even when Skyy Clark returns, it is hard to see a world where Perry is taken out of the starting lineup or does not play at least 30+ minutes a game. Just by himself, this level of play can raise the floor and ceiling of the team.
Go Bruins!
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That makes the Bruins undefeated against Penn State this year.
Such a great game from Perry. All of his hard work is paying off. In the post game presser, there were questions about Dent. According to CMC, Dent was actually hit in the head early in the game, that is why he went to the locker room and didn't return for so long. The flu bug is definitely going around the team. Bilo missed the entire week of practice.