His arm wrapped around his mother’s shoulder while her hand touched his face. Their eyes swelled and tears rolled down.

Anthony Booker isn’t known for emotion and is often soft-spoken. On senior night for Iowa State, Booker surprises those who have come to know him as reserved. But now, more than ever, Anthony needs this moment, he needs his mother.

Earlier in the season Latisha Booker had been talking to her son Anthony on the phone in the midst of a difficult basketball stretch. The words that came from Anthony’s mouth surprised her.

“He said ‘Mom, I don’t want to do this anymore.’ When he said that, I said ‘What?'” Latisha said. “I said ‘No, we’re not quitters, this family is not quitters and you already know this.'”

Latisha, who is a minister, often sends uplifting text messages to her son and calls him when she feels he might need comforting. Prior to senior night the two hadn’t seen each other for nearly seven months and their pre-game moment was “therapeutic.”

After starting for the Cyclones in the first nine games of the season, Anthony was relegated to coming off the bench following an 80-71 loss to Iowa on Dec. 7. He has been a role player ever since, and the change was a shock to the 6-foot-9 forward’s system.

“He’s hands-on, he wants to feel the floor, do it and really get it to where he can move forward,” Latisha said. “If he doesn’t get that he gets a little different, but you just have to know how to handle him and know how to talk to him.

“When you get him where he needs to be: Wow. It’s like the sky is the limit for him after that.”

That is what his mother was able to watch at Hilton Coliseum on senior night along with 14,010 other fans. Her son reached some of his potential and was a talking point afterward.

In his final game in front of the Iowa State faithful Anthony had six rebounds, two blocks and drew a big late-game charge.

“Anthony Booker deserves a lot of credit,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg following the win against No. 13 Oklahoma State. “It’s been a tough season for him kind of being in and out of the rotation and for him to go out and have that type of impact — we had to have him out there on the floor.”

That impact hasn’t been easy for Anthony at times this season as he has sometimes struggled to find where he fits in on the team.

“It’s definitely been a roller coaster,” Anthony said of the season. “That comes with the territory of being a senior. You kind of get old and when new things happen you kind of have to adjust for them.”

When those times come that Anthony is lost, his mother’s phone rings. Latisha admits there have been a couple of times following a tough night this season that Anthony has called.

In those times Latisha said she lets Anthony talk and air everything out. Like a mother, Latisha said, she is also there to help Anthony move forward.

“He’s been getting kind of rubbed the wrong way and that brought his spirits down,” Latisha said. “When that happens he calls mama, and mama is there to build him back up.”

When Anthony gets doubts as he did one night early in the season, Latisha tries to make him remember that he can push through. Anthony’s grandmother has multiple sclerosis and Latisha said she often inspires him in difficult situations by telling him if they can do it, so can he.

“I put it on someone that he loves very dearly to his heart,” Latisha said. “That begins to stimulate him, that begins to motivate him and to bring him back, because family values are very deep with Anthony.”

So, too, is his team. Anthony has realized that the time left playing college basketball is limited regardless of how far the Cyclones might go this March.

When the team held a players-only meeting last week, Anthony made it clear to his teammates that he is all-in no matter his role might be.

“Honestly I think he just kind of swallowed his pride and really understood the role that we needed him to play,” said ISU guard Chris Babb. “And what a better time than now leading into March.”

Iowa State will go to the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City. The NCAA tournament also looks promising for the Cyclones, but as a senior Anthony is beyond taking things for granted.

“There’s really a possible ending that we could lose and go home,” Anthony said. “Whenever that comes in I think that as a senior you kind of get closer to the realization that you’re not going to be playing with these guys anymore and we need to seize the opportunity.”

Anthony’s teammates agreed that last Wednesday’s game was his best, maybe not statistically, but with his presence and effort.

The compliments following from Hoiberg helped, his mother said. The game may have also been helped by seeing Latisha in a seat watching him for the first time at Iowa State.

“Wednesday’s game opened up a whole genre of good things for him because he got his confidence back,” Latisha said. “His confidence was thrown to the ground — I don’t know how, when, where or why — but he was able to get his confidence back.”

As Anthony and his mother embraced before the game, he told her he loved her and how much he missed her.

“I told him ‘You have done what mama wanted you to do, you’re a graduate,'” Latisha said. “‘Now it’s up to you to do what you want to do.'”