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Syracuse fifth-year senior Tiana Mangakahia was named a top-five finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award on Monday, a day after she played the last game in the Carrier Dome of her career. The award is given to the best point guard in the country. 

Mangakahia leads the Atlantic Coast Conference in assists per game, averaging 7.5 per contest. The next best rate in the ACC is NC State’s Raina Perez, who is averaging less than five assists per game. Mangakahia also averaged almost 12 points per game but has focused on being more of a distributor this season.

Despite being a finalist for the Lieberman Award, Mangakahia has been frustrated with her play this season after being sidelined last season while recovering from breast cancer. 

“It’s hard to be happy with my season because it’s not how good I could be. I feel like I could be better,” Mangakahia said. “This whole season has been super hard for me, just with my body shape and really adjusting to playing again.”

While she hasn’t scored at the same rate as she did earlier in her career, Mangakahia was top-10 in the ACC in assists to turnover ratio despite running set plays and being Syracuse’s primary ball handler. Mangakahia also shot 34.6% from 3, the second-highest rate of her career.

Mangakahia is joined by Baylor’s DiDi Richards, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Arizona’s Aari McDonald and Caitlin Clark from Iowa as finalists for the premier award. 

“It is a great honor to be a finalist for that award, and it’s well deserved,” Syracuse head coach Quentin Hillsman said. “She’s had an amazing college career up to this point, and hopefully she can continue to be solid.” 

Published on March 1, 2021 at 2:13 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_