With 2 All-ACC preseason team selections, SU named ACC’s 3rd-best team

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Syracuse women’s basketball is the Atlantic Coast Conference’s third-best team this season, according to preseason polls that  head coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel conducted. 

The Orange sit behind Louisville and NC State. The Cardinals finished in first place during the 2019-20 season and were the No. 1 seed during the ACC tournament. 

Fifth-year point guard Tiana Mangakahia and redshirt senior Kiara Lewis were also named preseason All-ACC selections. Mangakahia was sidelined during the 2019-20 season while undergoing breast cancer treatment. She was declared cancer-free in November and is currently on the watch list for the 2021 Nancy Lieberman Award, given annually to the NCAA’s best point guard.

Mangakahia is Syracuse’s all-time assists leader and led the NCAA in assists and assists per game during 2017-18.

Lewis led SU in scoring last season, averaging 17.6 points per game. She was named an All-ACC first team selection as point guard after starting all 31 games and averaging a team-high 37 minutes per game. 

SU finished eighth of 15 teams last season with a middling 9-9 conference record. Syracuse defeated No. 9-seed Virginia in the second round of the ACC tournament before falling to No. 1-seed Louisville the following day. 

This year, the Orange have added Kamilla Cardoso, a 6-foot-7 center and the highest-ranked recruit in program history. She was named to the conference’s Newcomer Watch List. From Brazil, Cardoso was an All-American at Hamilton Heights (Tenn.) Christian Academy. She’s joined by five-star recruit and guard Priscilla Williams, and the two helped make up SU’s recruiting class that finished No. 4 in the country. 

The Orange placed No. 23 in AP’s preseason Top 25 and are returning everyone but Gabrielle Cooper to their starting lineup.