Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes Continues to Score with USBWA Award
Mikayla Blakes may not be able to score any more baskets, but she’s still scoring. The Vanderbilt freshman postseason awards continued to grow with, arguably, Blakes’ biggest award yet.
Blakes was named the 2024-25 Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). She’s the first Vanderbilt player to win the awards and first Commodore to win a USBWA award since Jennifer Risper was the USBWA National Defensive Player of the Year in 2008-09.
Additionally, Blakes was named to six different All-American teams, was named the SEC Newcomer of the Year by USA Today and the 2024-25 SEC Freshman of the Year by the conference’s coaches. Blakes was named All-SEC first team by both the coaches and USA Today.
It’s a lot of postseason accolades, but they were well-earned.
Every bucket from Mikayla Blakes' RECORD-BREAKING 55-POINT GAME 🔥 @mikaylablakes | @VandyWBB pic.twitter.com/DMikZD9OW0
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 17, 2025
The Somerset, New Jersey-native averaged 23.3 points, 3.2 assists and 2.4 steals per game, while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and 34.2 from beyond the three-point line. She scored 20 points or more 21 times, including a 53-point showing against Florida that set the SEC single-game and NCAA true freshman scoring records that she broke a couple weeks later with 55 points against Auburn. Blakes is the only men or women’s basketball player to score 50 or more points this season.
Her 23.3 ppg was the eight-best scoring average amongst all players and ranked in the top 20 in six other categories. In SEC play, Blakes averaged 26.9 ppg which led the conference and scored 30 or more points in five SEC games.
MIKAYLA BLAKES IN HER OWN LEAGUE.#NCAAWBB x 🎥 SECN / @VandyWBB pic.twitter.com/lGLwfIpd8d
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) February 17, 2025
Blakes ended the 2024-25 season with 769 points scored in 33 games, which set a new Vanderbilt freshman record and is the second most in school history. Only Chantelle Anderson’s 765 points scored in the 2001-02 season tops what Blakes did.
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Taylor Hodges is a staff writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI covering all-things Vanderbilt. Taylor brings more than a decade’s worth of award-winning sports writing, photography and video experience covering every level of sports — from Little League baseball to professional sports and other sports like hunting and fishing. Taylor is fueled by his lifelong passion for sports that began the same day Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series walk-off home run, Arkansas beat Texas in Austin and No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts game.