WINONA, Minn. — Saint Mary's University's Raheem Anthony (Chicago, Ill.) has proven over and over again this season that he is the most complete offensive men's basketball player in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
 
Tuesday afternoon, that claim was made official, as Anthony was named the MIAC Offensive Player of the Year when the league office unveiled its post-season awards.
 
And Anthony was not the only Cardinal earning post-season conference accolades, as Owen Ziegler (Mount Horeb, Wis.) joined Anthony on the All-MIAC Team, while Breyton Buysman (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) was named to the MIAC All-Playoff Team.
 
Anthony had a senior season to remember, leading the team — and the conference — in scoring with a 24.6 ppg scoring average, while also hauling in 8.5 rpg and dishing out 82 assists in 19 MIAC contests. He shot a blistering 53.1 percent from the field (171-for-322) with 26 3-pointers and finished 100-for-123 (81.3%) from the free throw line in helping lead the Cardinals to their third MIAC Playoff berth in the last five seasons
 
For the season, Anthony equaled his conference-game scoring average at 24.6 ppg — No. 3 in all of NCAA Division III behind E.J. Day of Lasell (25.8 ppg) and Lyle Tipton of Geneva (24.7 ppg) — while pulling down 238 rebounds (9.2 rpg) and collecting 120 assists. He finished the year shooting 54.5 percent (235-for-431) from the field and 140-for-177 (79.1%) from the free throw line. Anthony scored 20+ points in a game 18 times in 2022-23, including six games of 30 or more points — and a pair of career-high 41-point performances.
 
With his field goal at 5:48 of the second half against Finlandia on Jan. 2, Anthony became the 28th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Anthony — who is SMU's first 1,000-point scorer since Eli Cave '21 hit the milestone during the 2020-21 season — closed out his career sitting eighth all-time with 1,390 career points.
 
Like Anthony, Ziegler was an offensive thorn in opposing coach's side — raining in 3-pointers at a school-record pace in 2022-23 in helping the Cardinals to the third-place finish in the MIAC standings, not to mention 16 overall wins — the most since the 1977-78 season.
 
Ziegler averaged 12.9 ppg in 19 conference contests and led the MIAC with 63 3-pointers — shooting a 46.7 percent (63-for-135) from beyond the arc. He also collected 55 rebounds and 21 assists in conference play. Ziegler closed out the 2022-23 campaign averaging 12.5 ppg in SMU's 26 overall contests, and set a single-season school record with 86 3-pointers — including a program record eight 3s in a game twice — and closed out the season sitting No. 5 in NCAA Division III in 3-point percentage (46.2%).
 
Thanks to a career-high 26-point performance in the Cardinals' 90-84 double-overtime loss to Hamline in the MIAC Playoff quarterfinals, Buysman also collected some post-season hardware, being named to the MIAC Playoff Team. Against the Pipers, Buysman, who averaged 12.7 ppg this season, shot 7-for-22 from the field with six 3-pointers, and was 6 of 7 from the free throw line en route to his fourth 20+ point performance of the season.
 
Macalester's Badou Ba was named MIAC Defensive Player of the Year, while Kobe Kirk of St. Olaf was the MIAC Rookie of the Year, and Carleton's Ryan Kershaw — who guided the Knights to the MIAC regular-season and playoff titles — was tabbed MIAC Coach of the Year.