Orange Trio Earns All-ACC Honors
2/27/2018 2:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Mangakahia earns All-ACC First Team, while Strautmane and Finklea-Guity garner All-Freshman Team accolades
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Sophomore sensation Tiana Mangakahia adds another feather to her Syracuse cap. The Orange's 5-foot-6-inch point guard was named All-Atlantic Coast Conference First Team by the Blue Ribbon Panel and the ACC Head Coaches. Freshmen Digna Strautmane and Amaya Finklea-Guity also garnered All-ACC Freshman Team honors.
Mangakahia leads the nation in assists and assists per game this season. In Syracuse's regular season finale, the Australia native broke the ACC single-season assist record set by Lindsay Allen (Notre Dame) in 2017. She enters the ACC Tournament with 288 helpers and is pacing the Orange with 17.8 points per game.
During ACC play, she averaged 19.3 points and 9.25 assists per game. She led the team in scoring, recording nearly 100 points more than anyone else on the squad, and shot an impressive 89.3 percent from the free throw line. She twice tallied 14 assists against an ACC opponent (Miami and North Carolina) and set a program record for assists in a game (17) against Vanderbilt earlier this season.
She ranks first in the league in double-doubles with 14 and is fifth in points per game (17.8). She tallied a career-high 44 points against Georgia Tech and made 20-of-21 free throws en route to the second-most points scored in Carrier Dome history.
Mangakahia's selection to the All-ACC First Team marks the third-consecutive season a member of head coach Quentin Hillsman's team has been selected by both the ACC Coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel.
Strautmane, a three-time ACC Freshman of the Week selection, earned All-Freshman Team honors voted by both the Blue Ribbon Panel and the ACC Head Coaches. She ranks fourth in the ACC in freshman scoring with 10.1 points per game and averages 6.3 rebounds per game. She's tallied 12 double-figure scoring games including back-to-back-to-back 20-point performances against Boston College, Virginia Tech and Louisville this season.
Finklea-Guity was also selected to the All-Freshman Team by the ACC Head Coaches. The power forward averages 6.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. She has tallied seven double-figure scoring games this season and is shooting a team-best 50.3 percent from the field.
Strautmane and Finklea-Guity become the fourth Orange duo to earn all-freshman team honors and the first to do so since Syracuse joined the ACC in 2013-14.
The Orange head to the ACC Tournament as the No. 8 seed and will face No. 9 Virginia Tech on Thursday, March 1, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C.
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