College women's basketball: Syracuse meets South Dakota State in first round Sunday

Josh St. Croix, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·4 min read

Mar. 16—The Syracuse University women's basketball team will welcome Tiana Mangakahia back and open the NCAA Tournament with a chance to avenge the upset loss from their most recent trip to the big dance.

The Orange (14-8) was selected as the No. 8 seed in the River Walk Region on Monday night and will face the ninth-seeded South Dakota State Jackrabbits (21-3) in the first round at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, to be televised on ESPN2.

Syracuse received an at-large bid as one of 64 teams in the field. First-round games start Sunday and will be held at various host sites in and around San Antonio.

"To have the opportunity to continue to play is humbling and it's really gratifying right now," SU coach Quentin Hillsman said. "This just feels different, we've sat here a lot, but this one feels different. We've worked hard and we've sacrificed, we've preached being grateful to play the game we love, and we're still playing it with a chance to win a national championship."

The Orange is expected to have Mangakahia, a fifth-year senior point guard, back from a lower-body injury that kept her out of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. She will enter the NCAAs as the national leader in assists with an average of 7.5 per game.

Mangakahia said she was disappointed to miss the conference tourney but expressed excitement to return to the NCAA Tournament to cap off her comeback season after sitting out last year while recovering from Stage 2 breast cancer.

She declared herself as ready for the big dance said her knee is feeling "20 times better."

"I wish I could have been out there, but I also think everything happens for a reason," Mangakahia said. "I've been through worse things in my life and I'll just go with the flow. I think I made the right decision because I could have injured myself more, and then who knows what it would have been like next week. I'm glad I made the right decision, or I'm glad that coach Q made the right decision for me."

Hillsman said that the status of freshman starting forward Priscilla Williams, who left the ACC quarterfinals after hitting the back of her head on the court at the end of a hard fall, would be determined closer to the opening game.

South Dakota State garnered its first Division I at-large bid after suffering a stunning, first-round loss in the Summit League Tournament. The Jackrabbits won the league's regular-season title and took an 18-game win streak into the league tourney.

They advanced to their first Sweet 16 in the last NCAA Tournament played in 2019 as a No. 6 seed by knocking off third-seeded SU, 75-64, in a second-round game at the Carrier Dome.

"They recruit to their style of play, they have scorers at all five positions, they're a very balanced basketball team, and they win," Hillsman said. "When you have a winning program and the way they do it year in and year out, they do a really good job, so we're excited to go play a great team."

The winner will advance to the second round March 23 to face either top-seeded Connecticut or No. 16 High Point.

Syracuse will play in its eighth straight tournament and ninth in the 14 times the event was held during Hillsman's 15-year coaching tenure. The tournament was canceled last year due to COVID-19 concerns.

The ACC sent eight women's teams to the big dance, the most of any conference. Syracuse is one of 26 schools nationally, including five in the ACC, that will compete in the men's and women's NCAA Tournaments.

"I was just super happy because I feel like we as a team have been through so much this year, and we still haven't shown everyone how good we are," Mangakahia said. "I just really believe that we can go really far, and in the (ACC) Tournament, I think we came out and played really hard. I just have a lot of confidence in us, and I was excited when I saw our name."

North Carolina State earned a No. 1 seed for the first time in program history when the bracket was revealed.

Joining the Wolfpack (20-2) as top seeds are UConn (24-1), South Carolina (22-4) and Stanford (25-2) for the 64-team event.

The Final Four is slated for April 2 and April 4 at the Alamodome. The selection committee chose the Cardinal as the No. 1 overall seed.

Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and will be in isolation for the 10 days, the school announced Monday.

Auriemma, who turns 67 on March 23, will miss the Huskies' opening game in the NCAA Tournament. The school said Auriemma hasn't had close contact with any team member since March 12. It also said that all Tier I personnel — which includes players, coaches and other staffers — have tested negative every day since NCAA Tournament testing protocol began last Tuesday.