Mangakahia Discusses 'Emotional' Return

The Syracuse star point guard also assesses her performance in Sunday's season opening win.

Mike McAllister|

Mangakahia Discusses 'Emotional' Return

Tiana Mangakahia returned to the basketball court on Sunday for the first time since being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. Mangakahia missed all of last season due to the disease, and was declared cancer free in November 2019. One year later, the emotions were running deep as she prepared to play in her first game since beating cancer.

"There was a lot going through my mind," Mangakahia said via Syracuse women's basketball's twitter account. "Especially on the bus. In the warmups, there was less emotions because I was just focused. But on the bus I was very emotional and I just couldn't believe that this day was here and I was going to be able to play."

RELATED: MANGAKAHIA SHINES IN FIRST GAME SINCE BEATING CANCER

Syracuse won the game 50-39, and Mangakahia was the best player on the floor. She finished with a game high 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists, four steals and a block. Still, she was not satisfied with that performance.

"If I was to rate my performance out of 100, I wasn't extremely happy with how I played but I'm just glad we got the win," Mangakahia said. "So I'd probably say like an 85. I just felt super happy to be on the court, and I just wanted to play really good."

The win was the 14th straight season opening victory for the Orange. They have their home opener on Wednesday against Lincoln before hitting the road again for three straight against ACC opponents. Wednesday's game in the Dome tips at 6:00 p.m. Eastern and will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.

Published Nov 30, 2020

Mike McAllister

MIKE MCALLISTER

Title: Publisher All Syracuse Education: Roberts Wesleyan College Location: Syracuse, New York Expertise: Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting. EXPERIENCE Mike McAllister has been covering Syracuse basketball, football and recruiting for more than a decade. Mike's career started with his own free blog as a way to vent following sporting events. Shortly thereafter, a network of basketball sites called Coast 2 Coast Hoops asked him to run their Syracuse site. That site was called Nation of Orange, and Mike quickly established it as a go-to for Syracuse fans. After running Nation of Orange for several months, a position with the Syracuse site on the Scout network became available. After one year as the recruiting expert with Cuse Nation, he was named the publisher. Mike oversaw the transition from Scout to 247Sports, and ran the site on that network for years. Presented with the opportunity to join one of the biggest names in the sports journalism industry, Sports Illustrated, Mike jumped at the chance. All Syracuse was started from scratch by Mike and the Fan Nation team. It has now become a staple for Orange fans of various sports. Mike has broken news on recruiting, Syracuse basketball and football team information and has established himself as the top recruiting inside in the market. He has appeared on local radio shows, television broadcasts, national radio shows and much more. Mr. McAllister has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Information Management from Roberts Wesleyan College.

Follow McAllisterMike1

Home/Basketball