Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman has praised Tiana Mangakahia after almost every game this season. On Sunday, Hillsman had no new words.

“I think we’ve said it all, that’s it,” Hillsman said. “When you’ve got a player like that, you’ve got a chance.”

Mangakahia scored 11 of the final 18 points for Syracuse (8-0) in its 81-70 win over Stony Brook (5-2) at the Carrier Dome. She finished with 29 points and 11 assists, her seventh-straight double-double and eight-straight game with double-digit assists. In a game featuring a 14-0 Stony Brook run and in which Syracuse trailed by five points with 1:26 left and four points with 0:45 remaining, Mangakahia wouldn’t let Syracuse lose.

The Orange shot out of the gate with a 15-0 run to start the game. To open the scoring, Mangakahia drove down the right side of the lane and shot over Stony Brook’s 5-foot-1 Shania Johnson for an easy bucket. Syracuse’s next score came courtesy of a commonplace connection: Mangakahia to Drummond. Mangakahia received an outlet pass, took a couple dribbles towards half court and then flung a chest pass to a waiting Drummond across the court on the left wing. Drummond hit and SU was off and running.

Syracuse led 24-11 after one quarter of play. But the Orange didn’t score again until a free throw with 4:02 left in the 10-minute second quarter, part of Stony Brook’s 14-0 run and 23-8 second quarter advantage. The Seawolves went into the half up two points and the margin stayed within seven points until the extra period.

“At halftime it’s always the same kind of conversation,” Isis Young said. “We just have to do a better job of finishing quarters.”

Mangakahia pushed the Orange across the finish line of regulation and into overtime. But before then, it took a hot third-quarter-closing stretch from Young to keep SU in the ballgame.

Johnson had just scored two of her team-high 21 points for Stony Brook to make it a 46-40 edge for the Seawolves. But then Young took her first shot of the game — a 3-pointer from the top of the arc — off a kickout by Mangakahia and made it. The next time down the floor, Raven Fox led a fastbreak and found Young on the left wing, open, and Young hit again. Later, Young set up right of center and fired for the third-straight possession. For the third-straight attempt, she knocked it down. And then just nine seconds into the fourth quarter, Young hit her fourth 3-pointer in under five minutes of game time.

“Threes always give us momentum,” Young said. “The bench is excited, people in the game are excited and I think it gives a lot of energy to us.”

With 1:26 remaining in regulation, a 3-pointer looked to have possibly ended Syracuse’s hopes of winning. SBU’s Jerell Matthews knocked one down from the right wing to take a five-point lead. It could have been a dagger, but Mangakahia had other ideas.
Trailing 68-63, Syracuse used a foul and Gio Perez missed two free throws. Mangakahia came right down the floor and laid the ball in. Johnson made one of her two at the line after SU fouled again, making it a four-point game with 45 seconds left. SBU wouldn’t score again in regulation.

“A lot of things had to go right and they all went right,” Hillsman said.

Syracuse was desperate to score quickly, but Gabrielle Cooper fired a 3 and missed. Digna Strautmane grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked to Mangakahia on the left wing who missed again. But Mangakahia had followed her shot and as Strautmane initially corralled the board again, Mangakahia grabbed the ball away from her teammate and laid the ball in.

After a timeout, Stony Brook was unable to get the ball inbounds and was called for a five-second violation, setting up Mangakahia once again. The game-tying bucket came courtesy of her left hand, which she uses sparingly even when on the left side of the rim. But to tie the game at 69 and send it to overtime, Mangakahia got to the left side of the basket, stretched out her left arm with the ball and put it off the backboard and in.

“I was just doing what I had to do to get the win,” Mangakahia said. “We needed a score.”

Syracuse pulled away in overtime simply by making shots as Stony Brook didn’t. With 30 seconds left, Mangakahia was fouled. She made the first free throw with a bit of rim contact. She swished the second. And after one more SBU miss and Mangakahia herself grabbing a rebound, the hard-fought contest would be over and Syracuse’s point guard could stand still for what seemed like the first time all game.

As the buzzer sounded to secure Syracuse’s eighth-straight win to start the season, Mangakahia didn’t make any grand gestures. Her play had been plenty. She simply smiled.

Published on December 3, 2017 at 6:07 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3