UMHB men’s basketball heads to East Texas for long-awaited ASC opener

Game #20 | January 28, 2026

The Matchup: UMHB (13-6, 0-0 ASC) at ETBU (6-13, 0-0 ASC)

Place: Ornelas Gym (Marshall, Texas)

Time: 6 p.m. CT

Watch: ETBU Tigers Plus Network

Stats: goetbutigers.com

Starting Five

1. UMHB opens its ASC slate on the road for the third time in the last four years, and will face ETBU in its opener for the second season in a row. ETBU bested The Cru in Belton, 65-63, in last season’s first conference tilt. UMHB comes into Wednesday’s contest seeking a 1-0 start to league play for the first time since the 2021-22 campaign. 
2. The Crusaders are 6-4 against the Tigers over the last 10 meetings between the longtime ASC foes. Five of those six victories have come in Belton, with UMHB picking up a road win in Marshall last season for the first time since Jan. 2, 2021. 
3. While the Tigers come into the matchup well below .500, it’s worth noting that over half of their losses (7 out of 13) have come by single digits. That included pushing St. Thomas, currently ranked No. 4 nationally, in an eight-point loss, and No. 14 Christopher Newport in a two-point loss just over 10 days ago. 
4. Since beating Whitman by 15 on Dec. 4, UMHB is 4-2 in true road games and 7-2 in all games played outside of Belton. 
5. UMHB senior guard Hudson Johnson is just two made 3-pointers away from tallying 150 3s in his career, which includes a two-year stint at Howard Payne, where he made 90. Johnson has 58 in 18 games this season. 

Tale of the Tape

About The Cru

Under first-year head coach Sam Patterson, UMHB has already reached numerous high points, including nationally-ranked wins over No. 25 Whitworth and No. 11 Redlands in the first two months of the regular season. With a 13-6 record, The Cru boasts the best efficiency margin in the ASC (+19.2) and is currently the projected frontrunner in the ASC title race, with D3Datacast.com giving UMHB a 74.0% chance of earning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Patterson’s squad is currently sitting at No. 40 in the NCAA Power Index. 

A lengthy non-conference slate has seen the Crusaders’ up-tempo style of offense showcase itself, as they’ve hit the century mark four times (Belhaven, Arlington Baptist, Redlands, College of Biblical Studies) and surpassed 90 points on 10 occasions. UMHB heads to Marshall with the nation’s 13th-best scoring offense, averaging 10.4 3-pointers per game (which ranks 21st nationally). 

Leading that offensive charge is Hudson Johnson, a Salado native who transferred back to UMHB after beginning his career in Belton as a freshman in 2022-23. Johnson earned Second Team All-ASC recognition last winter as HPU’s second-leading scorer, and has assumed the role of leading scorer on this year’s UMHB squad. Averaging an ASC-leading 21.0 points per game, Johnson is a sharpshooter from long-range, and ranks seventh in the nation in 3-pointers per contest. 

But he’s not the only one. Zach Engels (14.7 PPG) and Elijah Lawrence (11.1 PPG) also average in double figures for The Cru, whose high-octane offense also produced plenty of second-chance opportunities. UMHB remains one of the best offensive rebounding teams in Division III, ranking seventh as a team in that category. The Cru has been exceptional on the defensive boards too, coming into the conference opener with the ninth-best defensive rebounding average in the country. 

Engels, at 8.2 rebounds per game, has been at the center of the rebounding prowess. The senior is on pace to reach 200 rebounds this season, having already pulled down 155 in 19 games. His seven double-doubles are the most by an ASC player to this point. 

Lawrence, UMHB’s steady point guard, heads into Wednesday’s duel with an ASC-leading 1.59 assist-to-turnover ratio. A three-year player at Division I Oral Roberts, where Patterson was an assistant for eight years, Lawrence has 59 assists and is one of three players to have started all 19 games this season. 

About the Tigers 

Three seasons removed from winning the ASC Tournament in 2023, ETBU finds itself fighting to get back to the top of the conference coming off a 6-20 campaign last winter. The Tigers, even with numerous narrow losses, have already matched last season’s win total with six games left in the regular season, and are coming off their best win thus far, a 70-65 victory over Salisbury on Jan. 18 in Virginia. 

Michael Roberts is the name to know for the Tigers, as the 6-foot-6 senior forward averages 17.6 points and 8.1 rebounds. A Third Team All-ASC honoree last season, Roberts has scored in double figures in all 15 games he’s played in, and is the engine in ETBU’s offense. 

That said, don’t overlook Jack Pease, the ASC’s most recent Player of the Week. A 6-foot guard who played all but one minute of the Tigers’ two games against Christopher Newport and Salisbury, Pease is averaging 14.3 points and 3.8 assists in his first season in Marshall. The Dallas native came to ETBU by way of the University of Colorado, where he appeared in seven games for the Buffaloes from 2021-2025. 

ETBU enters its conference opener as the ASC’s No. 1 team in scoring defense, allowing a league-low 72.4 points per game.