BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Vanderbilt women’s basketball player 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.
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.
The 55 points scored by Blakes is tied for the ninth-most in a single game in NCAA women’s basketball history. She matches Patrica Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State, who scored 55 points twice in 1988-89. Blakes joins Hoskins as the only two NCAA Division I women’s basketball players ever to have multiple 53-point scoring performances in the same season.
Previously, Blakes scored 53 points at Florida on Jan. 30 to set the then-SEC and then-NCAA true freshman scoring records. She is the first NCAA freshman and the fourth NCAA Division I player since 1999-00 to have multiple 50-point games in the same season.
Blakes shot 53.6 percent from the field (15-of-28) and made an SEC record 23 free throws in a 98-88 overtime win at Auburn. With Vanderbilt trailing 74-59 with 6:30 left in the fourth quarter, Blakes spearheaded a 20-5 run to pull the Dores even with the Tigers at 79-79 with 53 seconds remaining. Blakes was fouled on a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 0.9 seconds left in regulation and hit all three free throws to send the game into overtime at 84-84. She scored 11 points in the extra stanza to give Vanderbilt its first in at Auburn since Jan. 9, 2014.
The guard scored 30 of her 55 points over the final 10:25 of game time. The freshman played in all 45 minutes of the game on Sunday. Blakes joins NBA legend LeBron James as the only basketball player in NBA, WNBA, NCAA men’s basketball, and NCAA women’s basketball to score 55-plus points while playing every second of the game since 2005.
Blakes filled up the stat sheet in an 85-77 double overtime loss to Mississippi State at Memorial Gymnasium on Thursday. The freshman registered 13 points, pulled down a career-high nine rebounds, collected five steals, and dished out four assists. Blakes came up clutch in the first overtime period against the Bulldogs, as her jumper with one second left on the clock sent the game into double overtime.
The Commodores continue their brief two-game SEC road trip on Thursday, as Vanderbilt travels to No. 16/17 Oklahoma. Tipoff against the Sooners is set for 6 p.m. and streams live on SEC Network+.
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