Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru
LAS VEGAS — With nearly three minutes left in Tuesday night’s high-profile duel against 11th-ranked Redlands, there was a brief discussion on the UMHB bench as to whether The Cru should work to slow down the pace, leading by seven.
UMHB head coach Sam Patterson’s response was clear. And simple. “Absolutely not,” he recalled saying afterwards. “We got the lead by playing fast. We got the lead by playing aggressive. I want to continue to do that.”
That mentality defined the night for The Cru. Matched up against a premier opponent—one that boasted the nation’s No. 7 scoring offense and averaged 20.4 forced turnovers per game—the visitors from Belton came in knowing they had to be the aggressors. Nothing could be held back inside South Point Arena, not against Redlands’ speed and athleticism in a contest characterized by its fast-paced flow.
So rather than slowing down in the closing minutes, the Crusaders kept the pedal firmly pressed to the floor as the clock ticked towards zero. Redlands cut a 10-point lead to just four in a 45-second span with 1:16 left, but UMHB answered right back, standing its ground.
The poise paid off, as Patterson’s squad prevailed in one of the most thrilling games of the 2025 D3hoops.com Classic, winning 104-97. The Cru hit 17 3-pointers, dished out 24 assists, and completed a double-digit comeback, headlined by a prolific 32-point performance from senior guard Hudson Johnson.
“I just wanted our guys to play with freedom and I wanted us to be the aggressor,” Patterson said postgame. “Sometimes in these games, when you’re playing an opponent like Redlands with the resume, players, and leadership they have, you come out timid. I wanted to make sure our guys knew that for us to win, we had to come out and be the aggressor.”
Johnson took that message to heart as much as anyone in the UMHB locker room. The Salado native had 21 points the night before in the Ohio Northern win, but that paled in comparison to the All-American-caliber showing he turned in Tuesday, rising to the occasion on a grand stage against the highest-ranked opponent The Cru has faced this season.
He connected on his first 3 less than 90 seconds into the contest, and simply never looked back, becoming only the third player in program history with eight 3s in a single game. His 32 points marked a new season-high, coming on a night in which he shot 61.5% from beyond the arc (8-of-13). He earned the D3hoops.com Classic Most Outstanding Player award, averaging 26.5 PPG in the 2-0 week in Vegas, while also joining the career 1,000-point club between his time at Howard Payne and UMHB.
Oh, and that was just the scoring. Even while hitting numerous long-range shots against Redlands’ up-tempo defense, Johnson also dished out a team-high seven assists and pulled down seven rebounds. There was no stopping him on Tuesday night, even for as much as Redlands tried.
“He was due for this breakout game, and I’m so proud he was able to do it on such a big stage,” Patterson noted. “Seeing him everyday in practice, and knowing the amount of work he puts in outside of practice and games, it’s relieving to see it all come together. He just fits the identity of the way we want to play here so well. It’s been a great thing. For me personally, getting to coach him for his senior year has been a blessing.”
Johnson came through with 21 points in a second half that yet again featured UMHB digging out of a double-digit halftime hole, charging from behind in a 20-minute stretch to remember. The Cru outscored the Bulldogs, 62-43, in the second half, with Johnson as the key catalyst in a game-shifting 19-6 run.
The scoring spurt was already well underway when the senior guard stepped to the free throw line with 8:44 to go in a game tied at 75 apiece. He made both free throws, then found the ball back in his hands 12 seconds later thanks to an off-target Redlands pass picked off by teammate Zach Engels. With his quick-triggered shot, Johnson again knocked down a 3 against Redlands’ transition defense, giving UMHB a five-point lead in the blink of an eye. The Crusaders’ advantage never dipped below three again, even as Redlands ramped up the intensity of its full-court pressing defense down the stretch.
It was that same athletic, pressing defense that gave UMHB trouble in the first half. The Cru didn’t shoot it poorly—they were 8-of-19 from 3 and 16-of-33 from the field—but turned it over 10 times. And in Redlands’ up-tempo style of play, live-ball turnovers are a primary source of offense, with few other teams nationally as effective on a fast-break as Eric Bridgeland’s Bulldogs.
Sure enough, UMHB’s 10 turnovers turned into 10 points for Redlands in the first 20 minutes.
The final sequence of the opening half was a microcosm of that, as in their haste to cut Redlands’ 10-point lead to single digits before halftime, the Crusaders turned it over. Donovan Ware stepped in front of Hudson Johnson’s overhand pass into the paint and without hesitation, lofted a long pass to the opposite 3-point arc to Derek Sangster, who scored rather easily off the glass with two seconds left. The halftime score: Redlands, 54, UMHB, 42.
“It felt like a whole lot more than just 10 turnovers,” Patterson said later. “I think if we could’ve cut that number in half, it would’ve limited some of their run-out layups that they got. A lot of our turnovers were live-ball turnovers that led directly to points.”
But that theme didn’t carry into the second half. Taking care of the ball was a central part of the halftime message, Patterson said, and in those next 20 minutes, The Cru cut its turnover total down by 80% compared to the first half. They turned it over just twice, and Redlands didn’t score off either one.
It produced seven more field goal attempts than they had gotten in the first half—even as they took 19 more free throws—and the Crusaders converted on four of those shots, elevating their points per possession from 1.07 in the first to 1.51 in the second. The pace remained especially quick, but UMHB was far more efficient coming out of the intermission.
“It’s hard to simulate their length,” Patterson added. “They are a long team, especially at the guard position. I felt like in the first half, some of those passes would be completed against 99% of the teams we play. But against this team, they were getting deflections [consistently]. They did show some zone, which was a good move by them to use the length up top and make it hard to see the creases. But I do think we adjusted well in the second half. We attacked better.”
They opened the second half with seven straight points, and pulled within 3 by the 16:30 mark on a triple from Johnson. It was the closest UMHB had gotten since trailing by 1 with 7:33 left in the first, and by the 10:50 mark, they led for the first time. Engels knocked down a free throw to cap another 7-0 spurt, this one erasing Redlands’ six-point advantage as the midpoint of the half neared.
Each of The Cru’s first six made shots of the second half were assisted, spotlighting yet another crucial aspect of the winning formula on Tuesday night. With Redlands’ length and size on defense, UMHB’s ability to move the ball effectively on offense proved key to quality possessions. It was team basketball at its finest, as The Cru assisted on 65% of its second-half makes and 24 of its 36 made shots in the game.
“If we were going to win, it was going to have to be a high assist night,” Patterson said. “[In pregame film], we showed a ton of clips of paint touch kick-outs that Redlands is susceptible to.
“We understood we wanted to get paint touches and we were okay with quicker shots against the press because it might be the best look you get in the whole possession. I didn’t care if there were 28 seconds left on the shot clock or two seconds left. As long as our guys were balanced and in-rhythm, I was okay with our guys having the freedom to just let it fly tonight.”
Let it fly they did. UMHB’s 17 3s tied the program single-game record for the fifth time, with the last such instance coming against Hardin-Simmons on Feb. 17, 2024. The Cru shot 44.7% from beyond the arc, getting started early with back-to-back 3s from Elijah Lawrence and Johnson on their first two possessions. Redlands hit 3s in each of its first three, as the game opened with a combined 5-for-5 mark from long range, setting the tone for a tightly-contested duel that lived up to the hype in both intensity and tempo.
Along with Johnson’s eight 3s, Lawrence added three more, and Josiah Wray chipped in with two, as did Donta Coady. Wray, a sophomore from Odessa, had a career-high 12 points, playing 21 minutes as part of The Cru’s exceptional production off the bench. Playing its second game in 30 hours, and doing so against a full-court pressing style, Patterson trusted his bench, using eight players who combined for 29 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists.
Patterson specifically noted Temple College transfer Noah Curry’s preparedness, as the forward stepped up with a season–high eight minutes, aiding The Cru when Engels got into foul trouble. Curry grabbed three rebounds and contributed well defensively.
“Our depth is something that I’ve always been impressed with and I think it shows in games like this,” Patterson said. “I told Noah Curry in front of the whole team today at film, the way he’s practiced back in Belton, he has every right to feel like he deserves a chance on the court, because he’s been one of our best players in practice. I just felt compelled to encourage him that, ‘Hey, everybody who is playing right now has been in your shoes, where you feel like you’re doing everything you can and you’re just not reaping the benefits of doing it under the lights. I said, ‘Your number is getting called tonight.’
“He’s all about the team. He’s never once complained or had bad body language. For him to go out there tonight in a game that we needed him in, he impacted the game, got rebounds, and was a great backup to Zach Engels, who had foul trouble.
“I also thought Zach May had some great plays defensively to create deflections. We got contributions from everybody tonight, and that’s what it’s going to take to knock off a really good opponent away from home. It takes an entire team.”
The closest Redlands got to taking back the lead came with 7:10 to play, as the Bulldogs narrowed the UMHB advantage to 81-78 on a free throw from Lucas Gordon. But Wray answered immediately, sinking a 3 on The Cru’s next possession. An 8-2 run bookended by a pair of 3s from Johnson soon followed, stretching the margin to 92-82.
Redlands got one final push in the closing two minutes, with Cam Brown’s 3 pulling the Bulldogs within four. But once again, The Cru had a response, this time in the form of a short-range jumper from Lawrence, who finished with 15 points. Brown was then called for a travel—Redlands’ 20th turnover of the night—and UMHB held the Bulldogs to just one make over their next five shots, solidifying the win on defense and at the free throw line.
And as for being the aggressors in the matchup? That showed up more than anywhere else in the effort to get to “50-50” balls in the second half. Whether it be a loose ball, a contested rebound, or a deflected pass, the Crusaders made it a point to secure possession in those situations. It paid dividends.
“We knew the pressure would be amped up once they started playing from behind,” Patterson said. “It came down to 50-50 balls. That was the message in the whole second half: the team that wins the 50-50 ball battle is probably the team that comes out victorious. It was kind of even there in the beginning of the second half, then I felt like we were first to those 50-50 balls for the remainder of the game. That was huge down the stretch.”
For the second time in the last four years, UMHB went a perfect 2-0 at the D3hoops.com Classic, and jumped up to No. 56 in the updated NCAA Power Index on Wednesday morning. Fast becoming the frontrunner to win the ASC, The Cru left the desert pleased with its body of work coming out of the Christmas break, yet focused on what comes next in the new year.
They’ll match up with another up-tempo team on Saturday in Belton, kicking off a stretch of four straight home games by hosting Concordia (TX) at 3 p.m. on Jan. 3. The Tornados are 6-2 overall.
UMHB Stat Leaders
Points: Hudson Johnson (32), Elijah Lawrence (15), Josiah Wray (12)
Rebounds: Hudson Johnson (7), Donta Coady (5), Elijah Lawrence (4)
Assists: Hudson Johnson (7), Donta Coady (5), Elijah Lawrence (5)
