St. Thomas basketball ended its final season in the MIAC with two players on the men’s team and one on the women’s receiving awards by D3Hoops.com for the 2020-21 season.

Men’s junior guard Riley Miller was selected as 2020-21 West Region Player of the Year along with teammate junior guard Anders Nelson joining the 10-player All-West Region team. Women’s basketball’s senior guard Macy Hatlestad was also selected to the 10-player All-West Region team.

“It’s a good feeling,” Miller said. “It’s a testament to my teammates because I probably wouldn’t have gotten it if we weren’t as good as we were this season.”

Miller helped lead the Tommies to finish number two in the final Division III national poll in a 7-0 condensed season. He is only the second St. Thomas men’s basketball player to receive this honor, joining Issac Rosefelt who was awarded it in 2006 and 2007.

“This year my confidence has grown a lot. I’ve felt like I had the confidence to take more shots and I want to carry that over to next year,” Miller said.

Miller had an impressive shooting season, leading all players in all NCAA divisions in three pointers who shot 50, sinking 32-of-52.

Teammate Anders Nelson received his third Region award of his collegiate career.

Nelson had a notable season hitting the 1,000 career point milestone during the Tommies’ final game against Gustavus.

“It was cool, I didn’t know how close I even was to hitting 1,000,” Nelson said. “I’m not a huge individual guy, I’d rather have a national championship with my teammates but it was cool for my last Division III game.”

Nelson was Region Rookie of the Year in 2018-19 and All-Region in 2019-20. He ended his Division III career as a Tommie with 1,005 total points.

Women’s basketball player Macy Hatlestad was selected to the 10-player All-West Region team for 2020-21 by D3Hoops.com after helping lead the Tommies to an almost perfect season.

Hatlestad started in all seven games and led the Tommies with 88 points in addition to 11 assists and averaged 29.3 minutes per game. She also led the team in scoring at 12.6 points per game.

The senior guard had a rough patch in her career tearing both ACL’s her senior year of high school and retearing her right ACL sophomore year as a Tommie.

“I’ve had a lot of obstacles and setbacks come my way,” Hatlestad said. “Something I don’t say enough is that I’m really proud of myself for battling back from injuries and being able to play the sport I love with the people I love.”

Hatlestad says she has realized how important this last season was for her and her teammates.

“Our motto this past year was ‘part of something bigger’ that Kaia (Porter) had picked out,” Hatlestad said. “We dealt with frustration with the cancelation of the national tournament for my senior year but I was able to put on the jersey again and play with amazing people and coaches.”

Hatlestad ended her Tommie career with 497 points, 124 assists and 212 rebounds while playing 82 games and starting in 34 of them.

Both men’s and women’s basketball have ended their time in the MIAC and will join the Division I Summit League in the fall of 2021.

Olivia Paradise can be reached at para4336@stthomas.edu.