Vanderbilt freshman Blakes eager to grow from record-setting play

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt freshman Mikayla Blakes knows each time she drops the ball in the basket it will bring more attention.

That's what happens when someone scores 53 points, then sets the NCAA freshman single-game scoring record with 55 just 17 days later.

“Everybody wants to stop you now," Blakes said about being a bigger target for opponent's scouting plans. “So I think just continuing to keep going and continue to keep working on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths is definitely going to help me.”

Blakes has scored at least 30 points in five games, tied for fourth-most by any NCAA Division I player this season and most among freshmen. She ranks second in the Southeastern Conference averaging 23.3 points a game.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley called Blakes special after her No. 6 Gamecocks held the freshman to 19 points last weekend. Blakes got only two in the fourth quarter as the Gamecocks made Blakes work hard on both ends of the court.

“To come in our league and to have done what she’s done, I don’t know if there’s a bigger offensive impact," Staley said. "I mean, she’s very, very efficient.”

Blakes already is in exclusive company.

Her 55 points are the ninth most scored in NCAA history. She also joined Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State as the only players to score 53 or more points twice in the same season. Blakes scored 53 on Jan. 30 in a win at Florida.

With Vanderbilt trailing by 15 with 6:55 left at Auburn, even her brother Jaylen watching on TV thought that game was over. Then she took over, scoring 30 of her 55 points over the final 10 minutes, 25 seconds of regulation and overtime in the victory.

Blakes also went 23 of 24 at the line. She knocked down down her first 23 attempts on her way to the single-game scoring record first set by Elena Delle Donne with 54 as a redshirt freshman at Delaware in a 2010 loss to James Madison.

It's just not about the points. Her brother knows only too well the sister he worked out with and played 1-on-1 with couldn't let the Commodores lose.

“She hates losing," Jaylen said. "At the end of the day, she hates losing more than she loves winning and for her, that was the most important thing, I think. Obviously the 55 was great, but she was so happy about just winning that game.”

Tara VanDerveer tried to get Blakes to play at Stanford: “She’s fantastic. She’s a star. She’s awesome.”

The now retired Hall of Fame coach called it disappointing not to get the 2024 McDonald's All-American from Somerset, New Jersey. VanDerveer said she's mad that Jaylen came to Stanford as a graduate transfer this season from Duke and didn't bring his sister with him.

Joking aside, VanDerveer said she loves the Blakes family and called Mikayla a great student and that she is really happy for the 5-foot-8 freshman.

"She’s doing really well,” VanDerveer said.

Everybody wanted Blakes. Stanford, UCLA, Tennessee, Indiana, Wisconsin and Rutgers were among those recruiting her. Shea Ralph convinced Blakes to become her highest-rated recruit yet for the coach's fourth season at Vanderbilt.

Jaylen, who joined the family on some Zoom calls as coaches pitched away, knows why Mikayla chose a program with only one Final Four berth way back in 1993 and now is on the verge of a second straight NCAA Tournament berth after a 10-year drought.

“She was just about building something,” Jaylen said.

Thanks to Stanford playing on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the Vanderbilt women on Thursdays and Sundays, the Blakes siblings are able to keep up with each other's games.

In that comeback against Auburn, Mikayla Blakes joined LeBron James as the only basketball players to score 55 or more points playing every second of a game since 2005 whether at the NBA, WNBA, NCAA men or women's basketball level.

She also earned both the SEC player and freshman of the week, something not done in this league since Candace Parker in 2006.

Ralph said while Blakes has not been a secret for a long time now, she liked how the point guard played against South Carolina. Ralph is focused on making sure her freshman doesn't have to score 50 to win as the Commodores host Texas A&M on Thursday night in their final home game of the regular season.

“She’s done it in moments where we’ve really needed it," Ralph said. “But she also has to get a little bit of help.”

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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco and AP Basketball Writer Aaron Beard contributed to this report.

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