Dores Close Home Slate

Vanderbilt (19-9, 6-8 SEC) vs. Texas A&M (10-16, 3-11 SEC)
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 • 6:30 p.m. CT

Memorial Gymnasium • Nashville, Tenn. • SEC Network+ • Tickets
94.9 The Fan • Vanderbilt Athletics App • Live Stats • Game Notes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team wraps up the home portion of its 2024-25 schedule on Thursday, as the Commodores welcome in Texas A&M. Tipoff against the Aggies is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and streams live on SEC Network+.

Starting Five
>> Vanderbilt comes into Thursday’s home finale looking to bring an end to a two-game skid that has put the Commodores at 19-9 overall on the season and 6-8 in SEC play. The Dores are coming off an 82-54 loss to No. 6/6-ranked South Carolina at home this past Sunday. Freshman Mikayla Blakes scored a team-high 19 points, while sophomore Khamil Pierre collected her 14th double-double of the season with a 14-point, 10-rebound performance against the Gamecocks.

>> Vandy is 12-4 at home in 2024-25. The Commodores are 24-9 at Memorial Gymnasium over the last two seasons and are 45-21 at home under head coach Shea Ralph. A victory on Thursday would give Vanderbilt its 13th home victory and would mark the program’s highest win total at home in a season since 2011-12, when Vandy won 18 at Memorial Gym.

>> The Commodores will be seeking their 20th victory of the season on Thursday night. The Commodores are searching for back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 campaigns. Last season, the Dores won 23 games en route to the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 2013-14.

>> Thursday will be the 18th meeting between the Commodores and Aggies. Texas A&M holds the all-time series lead at 10-7, though Vanderbilt has won three of the last four games against TAMU. Vanderbilt posted a 49-45 victory at Texas A&M last season to post the program’s first win in College Station since the 1997-98 campaign. The Commodores are 3-2 against the Aggies under head coach Shea Ralph.

>> Vanderbilt is 4-3 all-time against Texas A&M at Memorial Gymnasium. The last time the two played at Memorial Gymnasium was on Jan. 29, 2023, when the Commodores posted an 88-79 victory.

Game Coverage
Thursday’s contest vs. Texas A&M streams live on SEC Network+, with Kevin Ingram and Kamera Harris calling the action. Fans can listen to Jake Lyman locally on 94.9 The Fan and the Vanderbilt Commodores app outside of Nashville. Fans can also follow along with live stats.

NET Ranking
Vanderbilt enters Thursday holding a NET ranking of 25. The Commodores came in at No. 7 in the first NET ranking of the 2024-25 season, the highest NET ranking in program history. The NET is an evaluation tool the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses to determine seeding and at-large bids.

Blakes Closing In On Another Record
Mikayla Blakes comes into the week with 652 points scored this season. She is 20 points away from breaking Vanderbilt’s freshman single-season scoring record of 671 points set by Harriet Brumfield in 1981-82.

The freshman’s 652 points scored in 2024-25 are the seventh-most scored in a season by a Commodore. Blakes is two points away from passing Wendy Scholten’s 1989-90 total of 653 points for sixth on the list and needs 13 points to move past Scholten’s 1990-91 season total of 664 points for fifth.

Elevating Her Play in the SEC
Mikayla Blakes’ 27.4 points per game in SEC play is the highest scoring average in league play this season. Blakes has scored 30-plus points in five SEC games this season, a mark that paces the league, while her 55-point outing at Auburn (Feb. 16) and her 53 points at Florida (Jan. 30) are the top two scoring performances in all of NCAA Division I this season.

Overall, her 23.3 points per game average ranks second in the SEC, while it is the sixth-best scoring average in the country this season and paces all freshmen nationally. Blakes is the first NCAA Division I player since Mississippi Valley State’s Patricia Hoskins in 1988-89 to have multiple 50-point outings in the same season.

Khamil Matches Coach Earley
Khamil Pierre’s 14 double-double ties her with Vanderbilt women’s basketball assistant coach Ashley Earley for the most double-doubles in a season since 1999-00.

Pierre posted her 14th double-double of the season this past Sunday vs. South Carolina with a 14-point, 10-rebound effort. It was the fourth time that the 6-2 forward recorded a double-double in SEC play this season. Her 14-point effort also extends Pierre’s current double-digit scoring streak to six games, while she has now scored 10-plus points in 29 of her last 30 games.

Scouting the Aggies
Texas A&M holds an overall record of 10-16 and 3-11 in SEC play. The Aggies have lost eight-straight games entering Thursday. TAMU holds a NET ranking of 102 coming into play this week.

Senior Sahara Jones leads the Aggies in scoring and rebounding at 9.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Senior Jada Malone averages 8.4 points per contest for Texas A&M. Senior Aicha Coulibaly was putting up 12.8 points per contest before sustaining an injury at LSU on Jan. 26 and hasn’t played since.

Texas A&M is putting up 62.2 points per game through 26 games this season. The Aggies are shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 25.3 percent on 3-point field goals. Defensively, teams are putting up 67.3 points per game against Texas A&M while shooting 40.3 percent from the floor and 30.1 percent from behind the arc.

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