SEC's Best Freshman

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Vanderbilt women’s basketball standout guard Mikayla Blakes was named the 2024-25 SEC Freshman of the Year, voted on by the league’s coaches on Tuesday, the conference office announced.

Blakes is the program’s first SEC Freshman of the Year since Donna Harris in 1989-90. The Somerset, New Jersey, native becomes the third Vanderbilt women’s basketball player named SEC Freshman of the Year, joining Harris and Wendy Scholtens (1987-88). The league’s coaches started awarding the SEC Freshman of the Year in the 1983-84 season.

Additionally, the coaches voted Blakes to the All-SEC first team and All-SEC freshman team on Tuesday. She becomes the first freshman to earn first-team All-SEC honors since South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston in 2020.

The freshman has taken the nation by storm this season. Her 23.3 points per game average is the sixth-best scoring average in NCAA Division I this season, while it leads all freshmen nationally. Blakes ranks in the top 20 nationally in six categories and is the only freshman placed inside the top 35 nationally in scoring (6th; 23.3), free throws made (8th; 167), steals (21st; 75) and 3-pointers made (32nd; 72).

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, the freshman 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 and SEC single-game scoring records. She previously broke the SEC single-game and NCAA true freshman scoring records on Jan. 30 with a 53-point effort at Florida. Blakes set the Vanderbilt single-game scoring record on three occasions this season.

The guard also holds the Vanderbilt freshman record for most points scored in a season with 699 points through 30 regular season games. Blakes’ 699 points scored are the fourth-most by a Commodore in a single season in program history. Her 699 points are the most scored by a Vanderbilt women’s basketball player since 2001-02, when Chantelle Anderson registered 765 points.

Blakes set the program record for most SEC Freshman of the Week selections with seven this season. She was also named the USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week a nation-leading four times. The guard was also named the AP Player of the Week on two separate occasions, becoming the first Commodore to win the honor.

Earlier this week, Blakes was named a second-team All-American by The Athletic. She was also selected as the SEC Newcomer of the Year and named to the All-SEC first team by USA Today.

Vanderbilt heads to Greenville, South Carolina, for the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament as the No. 8 seed. The Commodores earned a bye into the second round and will play on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT against the winner of Wednesday’s first round game against No. 9-seed Tennessee and No. 16-seed Texas A&M.

For more information and exclusive content on the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, follow @VandyWBB on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X.

The complete 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Postseason Awards follow.

First Team
Georgia Amoore – Kentucky
Madison Booker – Texas
Aneesah Morrow – LSU
Raegan Beers – Oklahoma
Sarah Ashlee Barker – Alabama
Flau’Jae Johnson – LSU
Mikayla Blakes – Vanderbilt
Mikaylah Williams – LSU
Joyce Edwards – South Carolina

Second Team
Talaysia Cooper – Tennessee
Clara Strack – Kentucky
Madison Scott – Ole Miss
MiLaysia Fulwiley – South Carolina
Jerkaila Jordan – Mississippi State
DeYona Gaston – Auburn
Te-Hina Paopao – South Carolina
Payton Verhulst – Oklahoma

All-Defensive
Rori Harmon – Texas
Clara Strack – Kentucky
Talaysia Cooper – Tennessee
Sania Feagin – South Carolina
Raven Johnson – South Carolina
Aneesah Morrow – LSU

All-Freshmen
Mikayla Blakes – Vanderbilt
Joyce Edwards – South Carolina
Liv McGill – Florida
Sira Thienou – Ole Miss
Yuting Deng – Auburn
Jordan Lee – Texas
Trinity Turner – Georgia
Mia Woolfolk – Georgia

Scholar-Athlete of the Year – Grace Slaughter – Missouri

Player of the Year – Madison Booker – Texas

Freshman of the Year – Mikayla Blakes – Vanderbilt

Newcomer of the Year – Georgia Amoore – Kentucky

Defensive Player of the Year – Clara Strack – Kentucky

Sixth-Woman of the Year – MiLaysia Fulwiley – South Carolina

Coach of the Year – Vic Schaefer – Texas