Tiana Mangakahia walked away from her on-court postgame interview with a huge smile on her face. Fans hustled from all over the Carrier Dome to high-five her as she strolled down the tunnel. She said a few thank yous to the home fans and the grin never disappeared. Mangakahia had plenty of reasons to smile.

In Syracuse’s (13-3, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) 88-77 win over Georgia Tech (12-4, 1-2) on Thursday night, Mangakahia came within one point of tying the program record for single-game scoring, finishing with 44 points. She set a program mark with her 20 free throws made and tied the record with her 21 attempted. For good measure, she added eight assists.

“She’s just an amazing player,” SU head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “And she did a good job of willing us to win … I’ll take 44 and eight every night.”

The second half featured an especially potent Mangakahia. After scoring 15 in the first half, she went back out of the tunnel and dropped 16 in half the time. Adding 13 in the fourth quarter left her one shy of matching Alexis Peterson’s all-SU basketball and Carrier Dome record of 45 points in a game, set last season.

SU knew how it wanted to attack GT and it didn’t stray from the plan. Mangakahia and Hillsman both said they knew the Yellow Jackets would switch every time the Orange set a screen. When the switches came, Hillsman wanted his point guard to get downhill and “attack.” She did.

Codie Yan | Staff Photographer

While Mangakahia didn’t solely rely on one method of attack, she kept going back to one in particular. She’d set up on the left side of the floor and wait for a screen to allow her to dribble right. Most possessions, Hillsman directed whichever player had the defender on them that he wanted Mangakahia to face to go screen for her. Once Georgia Tech switched, the attack began.

“We got the matchup that we wanted and told her to turn the corner and make plays,” Hillsman said, “and she turned the corner and made plays.”

Mangakahia used a myriad of moves. Crossovers and behind-the-backs. Spin moves and up and unders. Regardless of the method, the result ended up the same on numerous occasions: a whistle and a foul call. At the line, Mangakahia took advantage of the free points, missing only one of her 21 free-throw attempts.

Syracuse’s star’s night got off to an inauspicious start. Less than three minutes into the ballgame, Mangakahia drove and did what Hillsman characterized a “U-turn” instead of continuing on toward the basket. SU’s coach pointed at Chelayne Bailey to check in for Mangakahia and the starting point guard sat for about three minutes. The message seemed to be received. Mangakahia didn’t make any more U-turns.

“He subbed me out,” Mangakahia said.

“And he doesn’t usually,” she added, laughing.

Early in the third quarter, Mangakahia drove easily by her defender and was fouled. One voice from the Syracuse bench shouted “they can’t guard you.” Another piped up with “all day.”

Postgame, Mangakahia agreed.

“I did feel like they couldn’t really guard me,” Mangakahia said. “So I was taking advantage of that.”

In the second half, Hillsman appeared to be arranging SU’s offensive sets on the fly. Once, though, Mangakahia looked over at her coach, smirked and gestured at the girl guarding her, as if to suggest that Hillsman should just let her beat the opposition, again.

Mangakahia had grown frustrated with a few no-calls in the first half after her drives ended without finishes or whistles. She even spent one sequence while she was inbounding along the baseline speaking to the referee before throwing her inbounds pass out of bounds. The calls started to go her way in the second quarter.

For one of the few times all game, Mangakahia drove left instead of right and rose with her off-hand to the rim. Through contact with a whistle blowing, the ball dropped for an and-1. As soon as Mangakahia’s feet hit the ground, she was pumping her right fist in excitement.

A few possessions later, she drove right before faking a spin to her left. The defender bit on the fake and Mangakahia stepped through with her right foot back to the right side of the rim. She absorbed the contact and finished. No fist pumps this time, just three or four hops up and down. She missed the ensuing free throw, her only miss from the stripe on the evening.

Mangakahia scored her 43rd and 44th, and final, points on a layup driving right with 4:07 remaining in the game. Plenty of time to set the new program-record. It was then that Georgia Tech started double-teaming the only Syracuse player in double-figures.

“One of the girls on the bench was going, ‘Oh you’ve got 30, oh you’ve got 40,’” Mangakahia said.

After the game, Mangakahia said she knew that setting the record was just two points away. She’d already scored more points than she ever remembered scoring in a game in her life. And in the final four minutes of the game, Mangakahia proved to be what she and Hillsman both characterized her as postgame: a pass-first point guard.

The Yellow Jackets brought a double team to Mangakahia as she dribbled near halfcourt. She’d already tried dribbling around the doubles a couple of times but one more basket just wasn’t important to her.

“If me scoring those two points doesn’t matter,” Mangakahia said, “then I’m not going to throw myself out there to score those two points.”

Published on January 4, 2018 at 11:12 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3