BOISE – Now that’s more like it.
Roddie Anderson III finally gave the fans what they’ve been expecting since Boise State announced his arrival nearly nine months ago.
The sophomore point guard had by far and away his best game of the season in the Broncos’ 95-54 rout of Northwestern State Tuesday night at Extra Mile Arena. He scored a season-high 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including going 50% from beyond-the-arch, and for the first time all year, didn’t commit a single turnover.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster,” Anderson III said. “My freshman year I came in and I played without any hiccups. And I was always told you’re gonna have a down part of the season and it just never came. But (this) beginning part of the season was what they (were) talking about.
“So I knew there were going to be some hiccups.”
Those began right from the start.
The UC San Diego transfer, who was an All-Big West player a year ago, struggled in his first three starts. He nearly had as many turnovers as points. Anderson III went a combined 3-of-18 (16.7%) from the field for nine points to go with seven turnovers.
It led to him losing his starting spot during a marquee road matchup against Clemson on Nov. 19. But he continued to struggle even coming off the bench. Anderson III had his worst shooting of the season, going 1 of 8 in 22 minutes of play in the 85-68 loss to the Tigers.
However, the low point arguably came last week against North Texas at home of all places. He did have more turnovers than points this time around. Anderson III was personally responsible for six of them himself and only had two points in the 69-64 win.
“It was definitely tough mentally,” Anderson III said. “But I just trusted the process, trusted God. I know he has a plan for me and just trust the work I put in. I knew it was going to come out eventually.”
It did Tuesday.
For the first time in five games, he was reinserted back into the starting lineup. So Anderson III wasn’t about to squander the second chance.
He showed that right out of the gate by draining his first shot less than three minutes into the game. It was the last of three straight 3-pointers from the Broncos (7-3), who jumped out to a 9-3 start.
“I’ve been all around the block and when I transferred in I had some struggles,” said senior forward Cam Martin who is playing for his fourth different school. “It’s different going somewhere and learning a new system, learning new players, learning how to play under somebody else. When you get things pounded in your head from a different coach and then you go to a new coach, it’s totally different. So that kind of stuff takes time.”
But late in the second half is where Anderson III really found his footing. Over the course of the final eight minutes, he had almost half of Boise State’s points with nine. All of those came in less than a three-and-a-half-minute span, too.
It allowed him to reach double figures in scoring for the first time in 290 days. The last time he did so was with another team’s uniform on. He put up 21 points in an 87-71 loss to UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 25.
“There’s a valley of death in development you have to go through and sometimes you gotta get worse a little bit before you get better a little bit,” Boise State coach Leon Rice said. “But I think you guys that have watched our program enough have seen this movie before with Chibuzo (Agbo), with Abu (Kigab) with all these guys that came here. It’s our job to get them better. And we have to work hard at it. It’s a daily fight. They’ll be no resting on our laurels with Roddie. He knows that’s the standard.”
Anderson III wasn’t the only Bronco to have his best game of the season.
Martin flirted with a triple double by recording 12 points on 80% shooting, nine rebounds and six assists off the bench. This included him scoring seven straight points in the second half that really helped put the Demons (1-9) away for good. His last bucket with 8 minutes and 59 seconds remaining, handed the Broncos a 27-point lead at 69-42.
Northwestern State, which did lead 11-9 less than five minutes into the game, didn’t get closer than 24 the rest of the way.
“He’s just getting comfortable,” Rice said. “You have to remember that’s a guy that hasn’t played for 900 days.
“So it was great to get him out there, especially these last two games letting him play through some stuff. And he’s learning. He’s learning his teammates, he’s learning our system and he’s just scratching the surface.”
Tyson Degenhart (20 points), Agbo (17) and Max Rice (12) all also tallied double digits in scoring. Degenhart scored the first 11 points of the second half for the Broncos, who tied the school record with their 19th consecutive home win. They haven’t lost a home game since last year’s season opener against South Dakota State on Nov. 9, 2022.
Boise State can break the record Sunday when it hosts Cal-State Fullerton at 2 p.m.
“I actually didn’t even know that,” Martin said. “But that’s a cool piece of history just to be a part of that.
“It’s very special because there’ve been a lot of great players in this program. So just to be a part of Boise State history is awesome.”
