Vindicator file photo Boardman’s Derrick Anderson reached the 1,000-point mark for his career in the Spartans’ win at Ursuline.

BOARDMAN — Someone sent Pat Birch a video of senior point guard Derrick Anderson prior to his team’s Division I sectional bracket final against Wooster.

The Boardman High School boys basketball team was hours away from playing its first tournament game after notching a 21-1 record. The only blemish was a five-point loss to Green.

Birch, the Spartans’ coach, saw his 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior in his warm-up shirt and uniform at the local YMCA putting up shot after shot.

“I was like, ‘I hope he’s not tired,'” Birch said. “It’s also kind of who he was. He just got in the gym. He wouldn’t kill himself on a game day, but he was there to get extra shots up just to be in a rhythm or to get better that day. He did that consistently.

“That’s where you get a season where you can get 22 points a game because you’ve built that up over the years.”

Anderson put up 23 points against the Generals in a 58-51 win.

Two games prior, on Feb. 18 at Ursuline High School, Anderson was 36 points away from 1,000 for his career.

Anderson thought senior night, Feb. 21 against rival Austintown Fitch, would be when he’d eclipse the milestone.

But he didn’t have to wonder what might have been about reaching 1,000 points against Ursuline. Anderson had about 20 points by halftime and 31 after three quarters in a tightly-contest contest. He ended with a career-high 38 points.

“We needed every bit of those points that night,” Birch said. “It wasn’t our best game. Ursuline played really well. Derrick put us on his back. I wasn’t expecting him to get it that night. I thought he’d be close against Ursuline.”

Anderson had family, some who hadn’t seen him play in some time, there for the game in downtown Youngstown. They saw shot after shot fall for the Boardman senior.

“It was pretty special to me,” he said.

Boardman won the game 62-60, but reaching 1,000 wasn’t in Anderson’s thoughts as he was exchanging handshakes with his team and opposition after the 32-minute affair.

He entered the visiting locker room. His Boardman teammates cheered and threw water on him as he celebrated the feat.

“It was a great moment to celebrate with my teammates and coaches. I just sat back and smiled,” Anderson said.

He played for Boardman throughout his younger years, but it wasn’t until he started playing on a traveling team with other future Spartan players when he started taking the game seriously.

“When that came, that’s when my passion for basketball began,” Anderson said. “I began to work at it and it built me. Without that, I don’t know if I’d still be playing basketball. It shaped me into who I am.”

Birch knew about Anderson as he started to go through middle school and the outstanding Boardman youth program, resulting in the success at the varsity level.

Anderson played on the freshman team his first year and saw some junior varsity action to start his sophomore season. How were the Spartans going to use this young, talented point guard?

Anderson came on over the last eight games of the 2017-18 season, averaging about six points each outing.

He scored about 30 points the first two games of his junior year. Birch knew Anderson was going to turn the corner and become a great Spartan guard. Birch did the math heading into Anderson’s senior season. He needed to average 21 points per game to reach 1,000 points.

“That’s a tall task of any kid,” Birch said.

Anderson averaged 22.7 points as the Spartans went 22-2. He amassed 545 points, close to a school record.

Birch said Anderson didn’t shoot well as a freshman. That changed when he became a senior, shooting 39 percent from 3-point range.

“As a coach, you’d love to take credit,” Birch said. “But players don’t make those leaps and bounds if they’re not making it on their own. As coaches, we put them in the right spots with Xs and Os.

“It really comes down to kids putting the time in and Derrick really did that. He put countless hours in on his own to get his shot better. He’s an incredible finisher around the rim because he works on it all the time. It’s not just the natural talent that he has. It’s the work ethic, too.”

A couple of NCAA Division II schools are looking at Anderson, but nothing is official, yet.

Anderson made it a priority this year to work out, take shots up and work on the things he needed to help him in his game flow — including free-throw shooting. He shot 79 percent from the line this season.

He knowS being in the weight room is his top priority, along with getting his shot better, defense — everything about his game.

“It’s a whole new level OF ball there,” Anderson said. “I have to get better. Next level, I have to get ready for it.”

The Boardman senior is all about constant improvement.