Dores Outrun Tigers

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Vanderbilt women’s basketball team cruised to a 100-59 win at Missouri on Sunday to close out the 2024-25 regular season.

Vanderbilt shot 55.6 percent from the floor and hit a season-high 15 3-pointers on Sunday. The 15 made 3-pointers are tied for the second-most in a single game in program history. The Commodores forced Missouri into 24 turnovers, which gave Vandy a 33-5 edge in points off turnovers. Additionally, it is the seventh time this season that Vanderbilt has scored 100 or more points in a game.

With the win and coupled with Tennessee’s loss to Georgia on Sunday, Vanderbilt earns the No. 8 seed in the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament and the final bye into the second round. The Commodores will open their run in Greenville, South Carolina, on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT, where they will play the winner of Monday’s first round game between No. 9 Tennessee and No. 16 Texas A&M.

The victory pushed Vanderbilt’s overall record to 21-9, as the Dores conclude the regular season at 8-8 in SEC games. It is the first time since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons that Vandy has collected 21 or more wins in back-to-back seasons.

Freshman Mikayla Blakes led the Commodores with a 29-point performance against the Tigers. Blakes’ 29 points at Missouri extends her double-digit scoring streak to a career-long 15 games, while it was her 18th game this season with 20-plus points. Blakes hit six 3-point field goals in the win and collected three steals.

Senior Iyana Moore tallied 18 points, dished out a season-high seven assists and collected a team-high four steals.

Sophomore Khamil Pierre registered 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to record her 15th double-double of the season, passing Ashley Earley (2004-05) for the most double-doubles by a Dore in a season since 1999-00. Pierre also handed out a career-best six assists in the win.

A pair of extended runs by the Commodores allowed them to run past the Tigers on Sunday.  Vanderbilt closed out the second quarter on a 15-0 run to turn a three-point Vandy lead into an 18-point advantage. The Dores came out of the locker room and used a 17-5 spurt in the third quarter to take a 31-point lead.

Head Coach Shea Ralph on the Win
“I want to say how proud I am of my entire team. I’ve been really hard on them all this month. I know what it looks like and feels like to want to be competitive in March. I know you need to be playing your best basketball and need to have a certain level of resilience and resolve. Today, my team looked like my team. They looked like they were having fun. We moved the ball and had tons of different contributions from tons of different players. I thought our defense, both full court and half court, was some of the best it’s been all year.”

How It Happened
Missouri held a brief 5-2 lead to open the game. The Dores responded with a 21-3 run that put Vanderbilt up 23-8 with 1:44 left in the first stanza. The Tigers tallied the final six points of the opening frame, as Vandy held a 23-14 lead after 10 minutes of play.

The Tigers continue to cut into the Commodore lead in the early stages of the second quarter. Missouri scored the frame’s first seven points to make it a 23-21 contest and forced Vanderbilt to call a timeout at the 6:41 mark. Out of the timeout, Vanderbilt went on a 21-5 run to close the frame and scored the final 15 points of the frame to take an 18-point lead into halftime.

After Mizzou opened the third quarter with a layup, Vanderbilt scored 11-straight points to take a 55-28 lead after a Blake’s 3-pointer. The Commodores continued to build their lead to as high as 41 points in the fourth quarter.

Up Next
Vanderbilt will now head to Greenville, South Carolina, for the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. The Commodores will play on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT against the winner of Wednesday’s first round game against Tennessee and Texas A&M.

Dore Notes

• Freshman Mikayla Blakes extended her career-best double-digit scoring streak to 16 games with a 29-point effort at Missouri
• Blakes set the Vanderbilt freshman season scoring record with a 3-pointer in the first half, she now has 699 points this season
• Blakes’ 699 points scored this season ranks fourth on Vanderbilt’s single-season scoring list
• It is Blakes’ sixth game this season with 30 or more points and it is her 18th game with 20 or more points
• Senior Iyana Moore registered double-digit points for the first time in four games with an 18-point effort at Missouri
• Moore also dished out seven assists to record her fifth game this season with five or more helpers
• Sophomore Khamil Pierre recorded her 15th double-double of the season with a 16-point, 10-rebound effort
• Pierre’s 15 double-doubles are the most by a Commodore since 1999-00
• Pierre extends her double-digit scoring streak to eight games, while she has scored 10-plus points in 30 of her last 31 games dating back to last season
• Vanderbilt improves to 5-10 all-time against Missouri and is now 3-4 all-time at Mizzou Arena
• Coupled with last season’s win at Mizzou, the Commodores have now collected back-to-back wins over Missouri for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign
• The 41-point win is the largest margin of victory that Vanderbilt has posted against Missouri in series history

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