(RV/RV) Vanderbilt (19-7, 6-6 SEC) at No. 16/16 Oklahoma (19-6, 7-5 SEC)
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 • 6 p.m. CT
Lloyd Noble Center • Norman, Okla. • SEC Network+
94.9 The Fan • Vanderbilt Athletics App • Live Stats • Game Notes
NORMAN, Okla. – The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team heads to a Midwestern tundra on Thursday, as the Commodores are set to take on No. 16/16-ranked Oklahoma. Tipoff from the Noble Center is set for 6 p.m. and streams live on SEC Network+.
Starting Five
>> Vandy heads to Norman fresh off a 98-88 overtime win at Auburn this past Sunday. The win snapped Vanderbilt’s three-game losing streak as the Commodores are 19-7 and 6-6 in SEC play. Guard Mikayla Blakes scored 55 points against the Tigers to set the SEC single-game and NCAA freshman single-game scoring records. Sophomore Khamil Pierre scored double-digit points at Auburn with a 19-point performance.
>> Vanderbilt will be seeking its 20th win 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 2012-12 campaigns. The Dores won 23 games during the 2023-24 season en route to the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 2013-14.
>> The Commodores have been road warriors in the SEC over the last two seasons, as Vanderbilt has collected a total of nine road victories. Vandy is 3-3 in SEC road games this season after winning a program-record six league games on the road in 2023-24.
>> Thursday will be the fourth meeting between the Commodores and Sooners. Vandy holds the all-time series lead at 2-1 against Oklahoma. The series dates back to the 1985-86 season when the two met in the 1986 NCAA Tournament. It will be the first time the two schools have met on the hardwood since the 2012-13 season.
>> The Dores are 2-1 all-time against the Sooners in Norman, Oklahoma. Vanderbilt posted a 76-63 win in Norman. In their first-ever matchup in the Second Round of the 1986 NCAA Tournament, Oklahoma collected an 86-67 win in Norman on March 16.
Game Coverage
Thursday’s contest at No. 16/16 Oklahoma streams live on SEC Network+ with Chad McKee and Whitney Hand-Jones 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 Sunday holding a NET ranking of 23. 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.
Receiving Votes
The Dores earned votes in this week’s Associate Press Top 25 and USA Today/WBCA Coaches polls. Vanderbilt received three votes in the Coaches Poll and two votes in the AP Poll. Vanderbilt has earned at least one vote in one of the two major women’s college basketball polls every week this season.
Looking for Another Ranked Win
Vanderbilt has an opportunity to pick up a third win over a top-25 team this season when they travel to No. 16/16 Oklahoma.
The Commodores have collected wins over No. 15 Tennessee (71-70) and at No. 19 Alabama (66-64), marking the first time since the 2015-16 campaign the Dores have posted multiple wins over ranked teams in the same season. Vanderbilt will be searching for its second top-25 road win of the campaign.
The last time the Commodores knocked off multiple top-25 teams on the road in the same season came during the 2015-16 campaign. Vanderbilt won at No. 12/12 Kentucky, 71-69, and at No. 24/24 Missouri, 56-52, that season. The win at No. 24-ranked Missouri on Feb. 28, 2016, was also the last time Vanderbilt collected a win over a ranked team on the road.
Coach Ralph Up for National Coach of the Year
On Wednesday, the Naismith Awards announced that Vanderbilt women’s basketball head coach Shea Ralph was named to the 2025 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Watch List presented by AXIA Time.
It is the first time Ralph has been included on the Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Watch List. She is one of 15 coaches selected, while the fourth-year Vandy coach is one of six SEC women’s basketball head coaches on the list.
Ralph has guided Vanderbilt to a 19-7 overall record this season. Vanderbilt is on the cusp of its second-straight 20-win campaign, which would mark the first time since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons that the Dores posted back-to-back 20-win seasons.
Mikayla’s Week was So Nice, the SEC Awarded Her Twice
Mikayla Blakes earned a pair of weekly conference awards on Tuesday, as the guard was named the SEC Co-Player of the Week and SEC Freshman of the Week.
It is the first time in Vanderbilt women’s basketball history that a player has earned the SEC Player of the Week and SEC Freshman of the Week awards at the same time. She shares SEC Player of the Week honors with Tennessee’s Jewel Spear.
Blakes becomes the second Commodore to earn each distinction in the same season, as she joins Stephanie Holzer, who was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Nov. 14 and SEC Player of the Week on Feb. 6 during the 2010-11 campaign.
Blakes also becomes the first freshman since Candace Parker in 2006 to be named SEC Player and Freshman of the Week at the same time. Additionally, it extends Blakes’ Vanderbilt school record for most SEC Freshman of the Week selections to seven.
Blakes Earns AP Player of the Week and USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week Again
On Tuesday, Vanderbilt women’s basketball standout Mikayla Blakes was named the Associated Press Women’s Basketball Player of the Week and the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week on the same day for the second time this season.
Overall, it is Blakes’ NCAA-leading fourth USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week selection this season, while it is the second time she has been named AP Player of the Week over the past three weeks.
The freshmen averaged 34.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 4.5 steals to help Vanderbilt go 1-1 in a pair of overtime SEC contests this week. Blakes averaged 44.5 minutes per game, as the Commodores played in back-to-back overtime contests that included a total of three extra periods. The guard once again rewrote the SEC and NCAA women’s basketball record books this past Sunday, as her 55-point performance at Auburn set the SEC and NCAA freshman single-game scoring records.
Blakes’ Breaks Records Again
Mikayla Blakes rewrote the NCAA record book once again at Auburn on Feb. 16, as she broke the NCAA freshman single-game scoring record with 55 points in a 98-88 overtime win. Blake, who previously set the NCAA true freshman scoring record with 53 points at Florida on Jan. 30, broke Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne’s NCAA freshman scoring record of 54 points she scored as a redshirt freshman back during the 2009-10 season. Blakes is the first freshman since the turn of the century to record two 50-plus point performances in the same season, while she is the fourth NCAA Division I player to accomplish the feat since 1999-00.
Blakes shot 53.6 percent from the field, going 15-of-28 from the floor. The freshman from Somerset, New Jersey, went 23-of-24 from the free throw line, as she made her first 23 free throw attempts. The guard dished out a team-high five assists and added five rebounds and three steals to her stat line.
Additionally, Blakes’ 55 points at Auburn broke her own SEC single-game scoring record of 53 points set at Florida on Jan. 30. The 55 points also set the Neville Arena single-game scoring record for either a men’s or women’s basketball player.
Scouting the Sooners
Oklahoma comes into Sunday at 19-6 and 7-5 in SEC play. The Sooners are No. 16 in this week’s AP Top 25 and USA Today/WBCA Coaches Polls. Oklahoma enters the weekend at No. 17 in the NET rankings.
Junior Raegan Beers leads a trio of double-digit scorers for the Longhorns at 16.4 points per game. The 6-4 forward is also pulling down a team-best 8.78 rebounds per game. Senior Payton Verhulst is putting up 15.0 points and sophomore Sahara Williams is chipping in 10.6 points per game/
The Sooners are putting up 85.5 points per game through 25 games this season. Oklahoma is shooting 47.1 percent from the field and 32.6 percent on 3-point field goals. Defensively, teams are putting up 68.6 points per game against the Sooners while shooting 38.1 percent from the floor and 29.0 percent from behind the arc.
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