After Tiana Mangakahia scored 44 points to lead Syracuse to a win over Georgia Tech on Jan. 4, Gabrielle Cooper cautioned that it’s dangerous to have just one player excelling at scoring the basketball.

“You don’t want to have somebody that scores 45 every night,” Cooper said on Jan. 4, “and the one (game) that they’re off, nobody else knows how to score and we lose.”

Cooper’s warning nearly came to fruition on Jan. 7 against then-No. 11 Florida State, as Mangakahia went from a season-high 44 points against GT to a season-low five points against FSU. But thankfully for the Orange, Miranda Drummond showed she could pick up the scoring slack with a career-high 38 points in an upset win.

In its only two home ACC games so far, Syracuse (14-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) has won on the back of career-high-scoring performances from first Mangakahia and then Drummond. Against the Seminoles, Drummond was the only SU player in double figures. Through three quarters against the Yellow Jackets, the same was true for Mangakahia. Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman, as he said at the beginning of the season, still wants to make sure the scoring remains balanced, but only if it leads to wins.

“Our goal is to get four to five players in double figures,” Hillsman said on Jan. 4. “We want to get other players scoring the basketball … Most importantly, we win the game.”

Drummond and Mangakahia have proven to be the two best scorers Syracuse has. Mangakahia leads the team with 17.7 points per game and Drummond is close behind with 17. Cooper is the only other averaging in double figures, at 10.8 points per game.

Anna Henderson | Digital Design Editor

So far this season, Syracuse averages more than three players a game scoring double digits. In all four of its losses, the Orange has had three or fewer players in double figures — three against Mississippi State and two against Notre Dame, Virginia and North Carolina State.

But on both Mangakahia and Drummond’s career nights, SU also fell below its season average for scorers in double digits, with three scoring in double digits as Mangakahia scored 44 and only Drummond in double digits three days later.

“We need the whole team, we need everyone to do what they do when they get into the game,” Drummond said after the FSU game. “People just need to do their jobs.”

Hillsman pointed to the opposition’s defensive strategies as partially responsible for both career-high-scoring outputs. Against Georgia Tech, he said the Yellow Jackets tried to turn Mangakahia into a scorer. GT switched every screen up until the last few minutes of the ballgame. That meant Mangakahia had countless opportunities to get to the basket against a forward or a center who couldn’t keep her in front. Georgia Tech’s defensive strategy turned Mangakahia into a scorer.

The Seminoles countered that huge night from Mangakahia, Hillsman and Drummond both said. Florida State sent hard hedges or straight double teams at Syracuse’s point guard whenever she was in a pick and roll situation. With two defenders occupied on Mangakahia, someone else had to be open, and often it was Drummond. She took advantage.

“(Mangakahia) created a lot of shots for me, she attacked, obviously her coming off a 44-point game they put a lot of pressure on her,” Drummond said. “I thought she did what she had to do.”

The ball is in Mangakahia’s control for a vast majority of SU’s offensive possessions. How the opponent decides to attack her defensively determines a lot of what Syracuse’s box score will look like at the end of the game. When Georgia Tech forced her to score, she poured in 44 points. When Florida State tried to turn her back into a passer, she dished 13 assists.

Based on defensive plans of attack, Syracuse’s scoring wasn’t so much unbalanced against GT and FSU because Mangakahia or Drummond wanted it to be. It’s because, as Mangakahia said after scoring 44 points, she was just trying to do what she had to do to help SU win. Hillsman had no complaints about the big numbers.

“I guess it works, we’re 2-0 with (one main scorer),” Hillsman said. “Maybe next game (Cooper) will get 38, I don’t know. Long as we’re winning, I’m not trying to figure it out.”

Published on January 15, 2018 at 9:16 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3