DENVER — David Roddy was a man on a mission Tuesday night, leading Colorado State to a 82-72 victory over the Nevada Wolf Pack in Reno.
Roddy made his presence felt immediately in this one, as he was able to score from anywhere that he wanted to. The junior guard/forward produced down low, using his strength to create separation from his defenders and get to the hoop. He was deadly from deep and knocked down four from beyond the 3-point arc (4-of-5). Roddy led his team in rebounds with eight. There wasn’t much that Roddy didn’t do against Nevada in what was yet another stellar showing from one of CSU’s leading men.
“David Roddy was just David Roddy, you know, just who he is,” men’s head basketball coach Niko Medved said of the performance postgame.
While Roddy has always been a guy that could force his will in the paint, his improvement as a 3-point shooter has been a big boost to the offense this season. Roddy entered the matchup with the Wolf Pack shooting 47.5 percent from deep and that figure improved to 50 percent after Tuesday’s win (33-of-66). He’s legitimately become a deadeye shooter from 3-point range and one of the most consistently clutch players in the country.
“He’s shooting the ball at such a high level right now,” Medved said, before explaining that teams are still respecting the drive, which is allowing Roddy to get shots in rhythm from deep. “And he’s stepping up with confidence and knocking down shots. I mean, he’s just playing at such an elite level right now.”
After dropping 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting against Nevada, Roddy has nine games with 20 or more points in 2021-22. He also became the 20th player in program history to surpass 1,200 career points. On a night where the Rams desperately needed to keep pace with Wyoming and Boise State in the race for a Mountain West Championship, Roddy was as good as it gets and looked like a clear candidate for the conference player of the year.
On the other side, Desmond Cambridge Jr. was brilliant for Nevada. He scored 36 points on 13-of-15 shooting and really presented problems for CSU defensively. Unfortunately, for him, Cambridge just didn’t have the support that Roddy did, so his hot night wasn’t enough in the end.
Alongside Roddy, Kendle Moore had one of his best games of the season. The senior guard scored a season-high 22 points, surpassing his previous high mark of 13 against Mississippi State. He finished 7-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc. Moore had three steals on defense that led to transition buckets the other way. He was the impactful player that Ram Nation has become accustomed to watching over the last four years. And he stepped up in a way that his team really needed on Tuesday.
“If you lose confidence you have no chance to make new shots,” Moore said postgame. “So I stayed in town, before and after practice, they told me constantly to stay ready to shoot.”
“It was just so awesome to see Kendle Moore, he’s just been working so hard in the gym, it was just a matter of time for him,” Medved added.
Isaiah Stevens was the third and final Ram to finish the night with double-digit scoring figures. Stevens recorded 13 points but did most of his damage at the free throw line (8-of-8). As he tends to do, though, Stevens paced the squad with four assists.
With a ton of pressure on CSU to pull out a victory and basically none for Nevada, who has now lost six straight, the Rams were able to rebound well enough to win and create for themselves on offense. Outside of Cambridge Jr. they did a pretty good defensively too, as they held their opponent to 67 points on the road.
Now that the Rams (18-3, 8-3) have won two straight, they’ll look to make it three in a row against Fresno State (16-7, 6-4) at home on Friday.
