NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt freshman Mikayla Blakes knows each time she drops the ball in the basket it will bring more attention.
That’s what happens when someone scores 53 points, then sets the NCAA freshman single-game scoring record with 55 just 17 days later.
“Everybody wants to stop you now,” Blakes said about being a bigger target for opponent’s scouting plans. “So I think just continuing to keep going and continue to keep working on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths is definitely going to help me.”
Blakes has scored at least 30 points in five games, tied for fourth-most by any NCAA Division I player this season and most among freshmen. She ranks second in the Southeastern Conference averaging 23.3 points a game.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley called Blakes special after her No. 6 Gamecocks held the freshman to 19 last weekend. Blakes got only two in the fourth quarter as the Gamecocks made Blakes work hard on both ends of the court.
“To come in our league and to have done what she’s done, I don’t know if there’s a bigger offensive impact,” Staley said. “I mean, she’s very, very efficient.”
Blakes already is in exclusive company.
Her 55 points are the ninth most scored in NCAA history. She also joined Patricia Hoskins of Mississippi Valley State as the only players to score 53 or more points twice in the same season. Blakes scored 53 on Jan. 30 in a win at Florida.
With Vanderbilt trailing by 15 with 6:55 left at Auburn, even her brother Jaylen watching on TV thought that game was over. Then she took over, scoring 30 of her 55 points over the final 10 minutes, 25 seconds of regulation and overtime in the victory.
Blakes also went 23 of 24 at the line. She knocked down down her first 23 attempts on her way to the single-game scoring record first set by Elena Delle Donne with 54 as a redshirt freshman at Delaware in a 2010 loss to James Madison.
It’s just not about the points. Her brother knows only too well the sister he worked out with and played 1-on-1 with couldn’t let the Commodores lose.
“She hates losing,” Jaylen said. “At the end of the day, she hates losing more than she loves winning and for her, that was the most important thing, I think. Obviously the 55 was great, but she was so happy about just winning that game.”
Jaylen said he knows why the highly-recruited Mikayla chose Vanderbily, a program with only one Final Four berth way back in 1993 and now is on the verge of a second straight NCAA Tournament berth after a 10-year drought.
“She was just about building something,” Jaylen said.
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