Junior guard Miles Barnstable is St. Thomas’ leading scorer on the season, averaging 14.9 points per game.

But Barnstable went just 2 for 10 from the field in the Tommies’ nationally televised dismantling of North Dakota State on Sunday in St. Paul.

St. Thomas coach Johnny Tauer’s evaluation of Barnstable’s performance: “I thought he played unbelievably well.”

Look further down the box score, and you’ll find a “9” for the 6-foot-2 guard in the “rebound” column. That performance on the glass followed games in which he grabbed seven and eight boards, respectively.

Barnstable is the poster child for the Summit Conference-leading Tommies’ recent transformation on the glass. Tauer cited an overtime loss to UC-Riverside in late December in which the guard played 37 minutes and didn’t grab a single rebound. The Tommies were out-rebounded 47-25 in that defeat.

The glass has been kryptonite for the Tommies for much of the year. They were out-rebounded by 15 in a loss to Arizona State, by 12 in a loss to Wofford, by 15 in a loss to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and by 12 in their loss to Nebraska-Omaha, their lone conference defeat.

Poor rebounding has been the primary reason for their handful of defeats this season, and is something they’ve simply had to overcome in victories. The Tommies (18-6, 8-1 in Summit) travel to Brookings to battle South Dakota State (15-9, 6-3 in Summit) at 7 p.m. Thursday.

St. Thomas edged the Jackrabbits by one in St. Paul last month, a game in which South Dakota State held a 47-25 advantage on the boards.

But the script can flip. Look no further than St. Thomas’ two games versus North Dakota State.

The Bison out-rebounded the Tommies by 15 in early January, a tight St. Thomas victory in Fargo. On Sunday, St. Thomas out-rebounded North Dakota State by three en route to a comfortable victory.

After getting mauled on the glass for much of the season, St. Thomas has now out-rebounded each of its last three opponents — all three victories following the loss to Nebraska-Omaha.

“That’s not because we have (size),” Tauer said. “We’re not the biggest team, we don’t jump that well, we don’t have a lot of formidable guys inside in terms of getting double-digit rebounds.”

North Dakota State’s two leading rebounders are each 6-foot-10. The Tommies don’t roster a player north of 6-foot-9.

On Sunday, the tallest St. Thomas player to log 20-plus minutes was the 6-foot-6 Kendall Blue, who leads the team in rebounding on the season with just 4.3 boards per game.

But Tauer said the Tommies have bought into collective rebounding.

“And understanding we talk about soar with our strengths,” he said, “and then collectively do things tough and together.”

Blue, an East Ridge alum, said the improvements start in the film room. There were games — including the loss to Riverside — after which the tape revealed the Tommies didn’t box out anybody. It’s hard to win that way.

“I think we took that to heart and made it a true staple of our team that we’ve got to box out to win games,” Blue said. “We’ve got to rebound to win games and get more possessions. We translated the film to practice, and then practice to the game and just went from there.”

Blue noted the increase of rebounds and the decrease of turnovers has played a role in the Tommies’ recent success.

At its core, basketball is a possession game. The team with more shot attempts is likely to emerge the victor.

“We’ve been doing that over the last handful of games,” Blue said. “So if we just continue to do that, continue to be us, I don’t see us losing a game.”