Tiana Mangakahia, who was known for her precise passing and incredible playmaking abilities while starring for Syracuse’s women’s basketball team, died on Thursday at the age of 30 after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Her death was announced in a post on her Instagram account and also confirmed by Syracuse athletics. The post on her Instagram said: “Tiana was a shining light who touched the lives of everyone she met with her kindness, strength, and warmth. She fought right till the very end, showing courage and grace beyond words.”
In a post dated Sept. 3, Mangakahia announced that her health had “taken a negative turn” and her cancer had “progressed” causing her to experience “significant physical decline.”
Mangakahia’s public battle with cancer began when she was a junior at Syracuse. A native of Queensland, Australia, she came to the U.S. to play first at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, and then transferred to upstate New York to join the Orange, then coached by Quentin Hillsman. She quickly established herself as an electric point guard with a high basketball IQ and superb court vision. As a sophomore, she led the nation in assists with 9.8 per game. Since 2009, the only college player to average more assists in a single season was Courtney Vandersloot in 2011.
In her first two seasons at Syracuse, Mangakahia also led the NCAA in assist rate, posting marks of 60.4 and 51.7. Since 2009, there have only been four seasons recorded by players (who have played in at least 20 games and at least 20 minutes per game) with assist rates higher than 50 percent. Mangakahia owns two of them, Caitlin Clark has one, and the fourth belongs to Dequesha McClanahan of Winthrop, according to Her Hoop Stats.
During both of those seasons, Mangakahia helped lead the Orange to the NCAA Tournament.
Then her first cancer diagnosis surfaced. In November 2019, she underwent a double mastectomy while battling stage 2 grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma — a form of breast cancer — which caused her to miss the 2019-20 season.
Mangakahia courageously returned to the court the following season though, averaging 11.5 points and 7.2 assists per game, again guiding the Orange into March Madness. And once again, she was second nationally in assists per game.
“If anyone has 600-plus days off, and comes back and leads the country in assists, that’s an amazing accomplishment. I don’t even know what to say (about that),” Hillsman said back in February 2021, shortly after Mangakahia announced she wouldn’t use her extra year of collegiate eligibility and would turn pro instead. “Tiana has been what she’s always been: very steady, trying to lead our team by example and playing the hardest she can play.”
Mangakahia left Syracuse as the owner of several program and ACC records. She is the ACC’s all-time leader in career assists per game (8.7), assist percentage (52.8) and free throw percentage (87.3). She’s Syracuse’s all-time leader in total assists with 736, which is fourth-best in ACC history. A two-time All-ACC First Team selection, a two-time WBCA All-American and a two-time Lieberman Award finalist, she also holds single-game Syracuse records in assists (17) and free throws made (20). Mangakahia is also the owner of the ACC Tournament single game assists record with 13 vs. Miami in 2019.
In the NCAA record books, Mangakahia’s career assist average is fifth-best all-time and the best of any collegiate player this century — just .44 percentage points better than what Vandersloot posted at Gonzaga.
She went unselected in the 2021 WNBA Draft, but joined the Phoenix Mercury briefly for training camp before being waived. Mangakahia then embarked on an international pro career with stops in Russia, France and her native Australia. In 2022, she was named to the All-Star Five and MVP of the North in NBL1. Mangakahia also featured for the Australian national team in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, helping the Opals win a bronze medal.
Mangakahia had announced her retirement in 2023 after her breast cancer had progressed to stage 4, but she returned to the court earlier this year in NBL1 and averaged 12.1 points and 3.6 assists per game. She had intended to play in the upcoming season too, signing with the New Zealand-based Tokomanawa Queens.
“Tiana defined courage, inspiration, and passion,” Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack said in a statement. “An All-American on the basketball court, she was an even better person off the court. She was kind, considerate, caring, and always uplifting even during the most challenging of times.”
Current Syracuse coach Felisha Legette-Jack called Mangakahia the “ultimate fighter.”
Many others around the world of women’s basketball offered comments too. Indiana Fever star Sophie Cunningham — who crossed paths with Mangakahia in Phoenix’s 2021 training camp — said she was “always so sweet with the brightest smile.” North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart wrote that Mangakahia was, “A great competitor, a true leader, and always a class act.”
Rhode Island coach Tammi Reiss, who was a Syracuse assistant during Mangakahia’s first two seasons, said she could “play that (point guard) position like no other.”