Jeff Brooks scored 21 points on a perfect shooting night and Penn State never looked back after scoring the first nine points of the game, coasting to a 77-61 win over Central Connecticut State on Monday evening.

Brooks was a perfect 7-for-7 from the field, including one 3-pointer, and hit all six of his free-throw attempts for Penn State (4-0).

Shemik Thompson paced the Blue Devils with 18 points in defeat.

Central Connecticut (3-1) did rally back from the early hole, closing the deficit to one on a couple of occasions, but Taran Buie scored nine of his 14 points during an 11-0 Penn State surge that made it a 36-21 game with 1:48 to go in the first half. The Nittany Lions (4-0) never looked back from there.

It wasn’t just Brooks that had the hot hand for Penn State, which hit 51.8 percent of its shots from the field and 14 of 15 free throws. The Nittany Lions, who also turned the ball over just 10 times, had a 44-28 edge scoring in the paint.