Photo by Luke Zayas/True To The Cru
BELTON — When head coach Sam Patterson describes the identity of his team, a handful of charateristics are repeatedly brought up. Toughness. Grit. Effort-driven. And perhaps that identity hasn’t been showcased any more prominently through this season’s first 16 games than in the rebounding department, where UMHB has outrebounded 11 of its opponents and tallied 60-plus boards four different times.
The latest of those 60-rebound showings came on Wednesday night in a 103-62 win over the College of Biblical Studies, a night in which the Crusaders tied their single-game season-high.
The aggressiveness on the glass paid off with a +33 rebound differential. It also vaulted UMHB into the nation’s No. 1 spot in rebounding, with the Crusaders now averaging an impressive 47.69 boards per game. Not only is it the highest current rebounding average in D3, but it also leads all NCAA divisions, ranking above D2 leader Lynn (46.21) and D1 leader Florida (47.33).
Patterson couldn’t be more pleased by the accomplishment.
“If you looked at our roster on paper, and the heights of our guys, you wouldn’t think this is a team that can dominate you on the glass,” the first-year head coach said Thursday. “But the old adage is, ‘It’s not about your size, your length, or your weight. It’s about what’s inside of you, and your grit and determination to do your job every time a shot goes up.’ It’s a credit to our toughness.”
That grit and determination has been showcased time and time again by The Cru, who have faced plenty of height disadvantages through non-conference play, yet continue finding ways to make their mark on the glass. CBB Analytics puts UMHB in the 98th percentile nationally in offensive boards per game and the 96th percentile for defensive boards, as the Crusaders have won the battle on the glass by 12 or more each of the last three times they’ve stepped onto the court.
“This is how we’ve formed our identity for this team,” Patterson said. “It’s a really big accomplishment too because we don’t have anybody averaging double-digit rebounds. It’s truly a team-identity that they’ve taken on and ran with.”
Zach Engels leads the team—and the American Southwest Conference—at 8.4 rebounds per game, having already surpassed the 130-rebound mark with the regular season only a little more than halfway over. The senior’s previous single-season best was 90, set during his sophomore campaign. In 16 contests in 2025-26, the Austin native has 134.
Behind him, four others—Connor Zamiara, Grant Jessen, Donta Coady, and Elijah Lawrence—average above 4.4 rebounds per game. Nine Crusaders have 30-plus boards this season, and of the 16 who have seen at least 15 minutes of game action, none has fewer than four rebounds on his stat line. Climbing to the nation’s top mark has truly been a by-committee effort from UMHB, who also ranks No. 8 nationally in both offensive boards per game and defensive boards per game.
It has been a welcome surprise for the coaching staff, who initially came into the year wondering if rebounding might be an area that would hold The Cru back, considering the main rotation doesn’t include a single player that stands above 6-foot-6. Instead, it has become one of the shining aspects of UMHB’s 11-5 start, which includes Top 25 wins over Whitworth and Redlands.
“Before I really got to know our team and all I was looking at was the height and size at each position, I was having conversations, saying, ‘I think our Achilles heel this year might be our rebounding,’” Patterson recalled. “It just shows you that it really has nothing to do with the outside. It has everything to do with what’s on the inside. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s a testament to the playing style and the hard work that these leaders do on this team every single night.”
But before UMHB emerged as one of the nation’s most formidable forces on the glass, The Cru opened its 2025-26 season by finshing dead even in its rebound margin against Trinity (45-45), and negative-6 at LeTourneau (38-44). It wasn’t overlooked by the coaches, who made a concerted effort in the days leading up to the 117-80 win over Belhaven to get the guards more involved.
“I went back on film and found every guard that gave up an offensive rebound in those Trinity and LeTourneau games,” Patterson said. “There were about five guards. So over three practices between playing LeTourneau and Belhaven, we put in something we called “the circuit”. We did it in practice with each one of those guards, and the only way they got out of the circuit was by getting a defensive rebound on every single person on our team. So they had to get 18 defensive rebounds to end practice.
“When you think rebounding, you think forwards and bigs. But if you want to be a great defenive rebouding team, your guards have to be in the mix too. I think that was the point in the season that flipped the script.”
It helped foster the collective team rebounding that has made UMHB so successful on the boards in the 14 games since. The Cru outrebounded Belhaven by 32 on Nov. 22, then finished +14 in a resume-building win at Whitworth two weeks later. The defensive rebounding in particular has paid dividends, considerably limiting opponents’ second-chance scoring opportunities. UMHB has held an opponent to a single-digit offensive rebound total five different times, most recently in Monday’s win when LeTourneau grabbed just five.
On the other end, The Cru continues to be effective in creating second-chance points of its own, tallying 26 on Monday and 28 in Wednesday’s victory. Patterson’s squad has pulled down 20 offensive boards in six games, posting a 5-1 record when doing so.
“I look back at last night, we scored 53 points in the first half but only shot 40 percent from the field,” Patterson noted. “So it’s not like we were making a ton of shots, but we had 17 offensive rebounds at the half. For us, it’s a huge part of our offense.
“We can feel confident that if we get a shot up every possession, we’re going to try to get 40 percent or more of our misses. That’s usually offensive rebounds near the basket in a high foul area, but we also practice those “dagger 3s”, where it’s an offensive rebound right to a kick-out 3 that is a dagger for the other team.
“A lot of good things happen when you grasp glass and for us, it’s about doing your job. You never know if you can get the rebound unless you go. If you don’t go, you’ll never get it. But if you go, you’ll give yourself a chance. That’s what we’ve been preaching from Day 1.”
The Cru gets another opportunity to dominate the glass on Saturday afternoon, hosting a Dallas Christian College team that posted a -4.5 rebound margin through its first 15 games. After that, it’s off to Virginia for games against Salisbury (37.4 RPG) and Christopher Newport (44.6 RPG), with the latter of the two ranking 13th nationally in rebounds per game.
Becoming the nation’s rebounding leader hasn’t come easily for this team, but it has remained a priority each day. Now in early January, that effort is paying off, and adding to UMHB’s momentum with conference play just around the corner.
“We haven’t had to do a ton of rebounding drills because we have guys who value rebounding,” Patterson said. “We have tough guys at every position on the court.”
