No. 10 Oregon
Women's Basketball
INDIANAPOLIS – The U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) has named Vanderbilt women’s basketball student-athlete Mikayla Blakes as the 2024-25 Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year Award winner.
Blakes averaged 23.3 points, 3.2 assists and 2.4 steals per game. She shot 45.6 percent from the floor and 34.2 percent from behind the arc in her first season with the Commodores and scored 20 or more points in 21 contests.
The guard, who has been named an All-American by six different publications this season, becomes the first Vanderbilt women’s basketball player to win the USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year Award. Blakes also becomes the first Commodore to win an individual national award from a major women’s basketball publication since Jennifer Risper was named the USBWA National Defensive Player of the Year in 2008-09.
The Somerset, New Jersey, native took the nation by storm in her freshman season. She was named the 2024-25 SEC Freshman of the Year by the SEC coaches and was selected as the SEC Newcomer of the Year by USA Today. In addition, Blakes was named All-SEC first team by both the coaches and USA Today.
Blakes’ 23.3 points per game average was the eighth-best scoring average in NCAA Division I this season, while it led all freshmen nationally. The guard ranked in the top 20 nationally in six categories and is the only freshman placed inside the top 40 nationally in scoring (8th; 23.3), free throws made (7th; 193) and steals (40th; 78). Blakes also ranked inside the top 10 nationally among freshmen in 12 different stat categories.
Her 26.9 points per game average in SEC play led the league, as she scored 30 or more points in five SEC contests. Overall, Blakes has registered 20-plus points in 18 games this season and has collected five-plus assists in eight contests.
Blakes rewrote the NCAA, SEC and Vanderbilt record books multiple times this season. Her 55-point performance at Auburn on Feb. 16 set the NCAA freshman single-game and SEC single-game scoring records. She previously set the SEC single-game and NCAA true freshman scoring records on Jan. 30 with a 53-point effort at Florida. Blakes also set the Vanderbilt single-game scoring record on three separate occasions this season.
Seven times Blakes was named the SEC Freshman of the Week and four times she earned the Tamika Catchings National Freshman Player of the Week from the USBWA. She is the only basketball player on either the men’s or women’s side to score 50 points in a game this season.
The guard has set the Vanderbilt freshman record for most points scored in a season with 769 points through 33 games. Blakes’ 769 points scored are the second-most by a Commodore in a single season in program history. Blakes’ 2024-25 season point total is the highest by a Vanderbilt women’s basketball player since 2001-02 when Chantelle Anderson registered 765 points.
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