UPDATED: Dec. 1, 2017 at 1:34 a.m.

Tiana Mangakahia charged down the left wing and pushed Syracuse’s transition one minute into the opening frame. When she pulled up, Miranda Drummond sprinted past her and curved around her defender, leaving her halfway between the 3-point arc and the baseline. Mangakahia’s bounce pass gave Drummond an open lane and SU’s first two points of the game.

That play was the first of many times the duo connected on a back-door cut, always Mangakahia to Drummond, and it surprised their coach Quentin Hillsman.

“I have nothing to do with (the backdoor cuts),” Hillsman said. “We have not one back-door play in our playbook … That’s all them … I am so sincere in telling you that we do not have a backdoor play.”

Such a play, and others, displayed the duo’s communication that Syracuse (7-0) would rely on during its 81-74 victory against Northwestern (5-3) in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge Thursday night in the Carrier Dome. Both Drummond (29) and Mangakahia (26) set career-highs in scoring and accounted for more than half of the Orange offense. Mangakahia added a game-high 12 assists, and Drummond led SU with 11 rebounds. In crunch time, with the team’s trading baskets and leads, the pair scored SU’s last 20 points. NU had 21 in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats entered the game with the best scoring-defense in its conference, limiting teams to 54.3 points per game. SU’s two first-year players combined for 55.

“They are both very smart basketball players,” Hillsman said. “ … Miranda has a really good sense of when to cut hard to the rim and we all know if she does that, Tiana is definitely going to find her.”

After the duo’s initial layup to start the game, Mangakahia drove and kicked it to Drummond who hit a 3-pointer from the left wing. The next time down the floor, Mangakahia again found Drummond for a layup. On the night, eight of Mangakahia’s 12 assists were converted by Drummond.

Codie Yan | Staff Photographer

Syracuse knew it needed to control pace of play to win the game. On film, Hillsman recognized that Northwestern’s half-court defense was its strong suit. To combat this, he urged his team to run the floor. After an SU rebound, Mangakahia routinely hovered to the elbow, caught the outlet and pushed transition. Syracuse recorded 11 of its 20 fast-break points in the first. Many of which came from the Mangakahia-to-Drummond connection.

“They don’t like a fast-paced game,” Mangakahia said. “Pushing the ball on them was one of our key points going into that game.”

In the second quarter, the Wildcats clamped down. SU was forced to run its half-court offense, which normally consists of Mangakahia driving and kicking to shooters. But when the guard looked up for a pass, she saw a swarm of purple jerseys.

Mangakahia adjusted by rushing the lane and looking for baskets instead of assists. A smaller guard at 5-foot-6, she used a litany of moves – a crossover, behind-the-back dribble and hesitation – to blow by the taller Wildcat defender.

“The first play of the second quarter, I settled for a 3,” Mangakahia said. “The coaches on the sideline were like, ‘They can’t guard you, attack, keep attacking,’ That helped me.”

Coming out of the break, SU’s press stymied NU and quickened the pace. With just under nine minutes left in the third, Drummond finished a layup. Mangakahia stole a pass and made a layup of her own. Then, Drummond knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing. SU regained the lead with a 7-0 run in the 1:42 span.

The teams were played at a pace Syracuse was comfortable in the fourth quarter. Behind Mangakahia and Drummond, the Carrier Dome crowd saw two players dominate in a way it hadn’t seen since last year.

Drummond said that the duo’s chemistry started this past summer in pick-up games. The redshirt junior liked to cut to the basket and Mangakahia always looked to drive and dish. Eventually, one would nod to the other while on offense and their unofficial play started. Syracuse relied on that Thursday night.

Last season, SU graduated two program greats in Alexis Peterson and Brittney Skyes. The pair carried the Orange to the second round of the NCAA tournament and combined for 54 percent of SU’s points. The duo of Mangakahia and Drummond have accounted for 43 percent of the Orange offense. Hillsman has said all year it would need to rely on more than just two players to win. But so far, it has done just that.

“I thought Miranda was amazing, she was fantastic tonight,” Hillsman said. “Tiana, another monster performance. We have players that are digging in and playing like that you have a chance to be really good.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Tiana Mangakahia’s status during the 2016-17 season was misstated. Mangakahia did not play basketball at the college she attended that year. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on November 30, 2017 at 11:12 pm

Contact Nick: [email protected] | @nick_a_alvarez