Tiana Mangakahia walked toward the Syracuse bench with her head down, picking it up only when she saw Miranda Drummond approaching her. She offered a high five, but Drummond rejected it. Instead, the redshirt senior went in for a hug with Mangakahia, while Digna Strautmane joined Drummond on their point guard’s other side.

Mangakahia cracked a brief smile before it disappeared for postgame handshakes with Florida State. When they were over, and she was done shaking hands with the Seminoles and her teammates, SU head coach Quentin Hillsman rejected her high-five too. He wrapped his arm around her and pandered to the crowd, talking to nobody in particular about how well his point guard played.

Mangakahia had just tied her career-high with 44 points, including 33 in the second half, to lead short-handed No. 17 Syracuse (21-7, 10-5 Atlantic Coast) to a much-needed 94-88 win over No. 22 Florida State (21-7, 9-6). Without Emily Engstler, who didn’t travel with the team to due to an academic issue, and with centers Amaya Finklea-Guity and Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi in foul trouble, the Orange heavily relied on Mangakahia to carry them. And she did.

“Man, it’s funny, I didn’t realize she had that many points, I swear I didn’t,” Hillsman said. “Watching the game, I knew that she was having a good game, but 44, man, that’s a bunch in a game.”

Mangakahia didn’t get going until after the first media timeout of the game, when she scored seven of Syracuse’s last 10 points of the first quarter. That tied FSU’s Nausia Woolfolk for the game-high after the first, which SU finished leading 22-18. The Seminoles opened the second quarter with a 10-4 run, stopped by a deep 2-pointer by Kadiatou Sissoko that tied the game at 28. While the Orange shot the ball well early on, the play of its centers faltered.  

SU tallied nine turnovers in the first half alone, with Finklea-Guity and Djaldi-Tabdi responsible for two each. They also struggled defensively. The two players each racked up three fouls in seven minutes, forcing Hillsman to play a combination of Raven Fox, Sissoko, and Digna Strautmane at center.

“They were fantastic,” Hillsman said, “they did a really good job in the paint, they were very quick on their feet, moving the ball, they move really well in our zone.”

But without two of their best rebounders for most of the half, the Orange were dominated on the defensive glass. They gave up nine offensive rebounds, allowing Florida State to attempt 10 more shots than Syracuse did in the first half. Despite the shot disparity, SU kept pace with the Seminoles — it went into halftime up one, thanks in part to its 65.2 percent shooting from the field.

With her frontcourt in foul trouble, Mangakahia took over the game offensively. Just over three minutes into the second half, the junior scored six straight points for the Orange, boosting their lead to 53-49 by the midway point in the third. Defensively, even though Djaldi-Tabdi earned her fourth foul, Finklea-Guity stayed aggressive and blocked two shots in the period.

While SU’s defense stabilized, Mangakahia continued to go to work on the Seminoles. During his halftime interview, Hillsman said that his team needed to be more aggressive in the second half. Mangakahia made his words a reality, scoring 16 points in the third quarter alone. Her explosion culminated in a pair of 3-pointers 31 seconds apart, with the second giving the Orange a 67-58 lead and prompting a Florida State timeout. As she ran to the bench, Hillsman made a point of meeting her with his arms outstretched for a low-five.

“She kept attacking the rim,” Hillsman said. “She kept playing downhill, playing aggressive, I thought that was the key of the game for her.”

Sissoko, who played a career-high 23minutes, continued her career day with a leaning jumper to begin the fourth quarter and give SU a nine-point lead. Mangakahia followed by scoring six of Syracuse’s next eight points, but then the Orange offense went stagnant. Sissoko missed four shots in a row and Mangakahia turned the ball over twice, allowing the Seminoles to go on a 13-2 run and tie the game at 79.

Hillsman called a timeout, which was followed by a steal and another layup by Mangakahia, giving her a season-high 35 points. Florida State responded by tying the game again, but just over two minutes later, Mangakahia put Syracuse ahead for good. Off a defensive rebound by Strautmane, Mangakahia leaked out and converted a clutch fast-break layup plus the foul to put SU up 3.

FSU cut the Orange’s lead to 1, but six free throws by Mangakahia in the last 41 seconds ensured that Syracuse never trailed again. Without Engstler and with its centers in foul trouble, SU was short-handed on Thursday night. And following a 30-point loss to Notre Dame on Monday, the Orange came into Tallahassee desperate for a win. To make sure that happened, Mangakahia turned in her best performance of the season, and possibly her Syracuse career.

“Anytime you get a player that can score at that rate, you understand that that’s a luxury,” Hillsman said. “Not too many people have players in their program that can score that many points.”

Published on February 28, 2019 at 11:11 pm

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