Vanderbilt's Mikayla Blakes drops 53 points to break JuJu Watkins' NCAA freshman scoring record
The freshman guard broke both the NCAA single-game scoring record for freshmen and the SEC single-game scoring record regardless of class on Thursday, posting 53 points in the No. 23 Commodores' 99-86. road win over Florida.
In the case of the freshman record, Blakes surpassed an 11-month-old record held by USC star JuJu Watkins. She shot 16-of-24 from the field, 5-of-9 from 3-point range and 16-of-18 from the free throw line, along with three rebounds, two assists and three steals.
One of those shots was of the circus variety.
Mikayla Blakes is cooking up some magic in Gainesville 🪄#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/UwlSvHAGSE
— no. 23 Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 31, 2025
Vanderbilt naturally had to go with the Wilt Chamberlain celebration after the game:
pic.twitter.com/kwnyIBZzmd
— no. 23 Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 31, 2025
The performance also broke the Vanderbilt the scoring record, which was set when her teammate Khamil Pierre scored 42 on Dec. 16.
Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph, a former UConn assistant, had high praise after the game, via the Nashville Tennesseean:
"Mikayla had one of the most incredible performances that I've ever seen as a coach," Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said. "And I've coached a lot of really good players for a long time, and that's not taking anything away from them. I think you see a player like her do what she did tonight. Sometimes she makes things that are really, really hard to do look really easy."
Blakes' record-setting game was the 22nd of her college career, which she began at Vanderbilt after being ranked by ESPN as the No. 8 recruit in the country.
She has so far lived up the hype. She entered Thursday averaging 21.0 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game for Vanderbilt, which holds a 17-4 record after going 23-10 last season and 12-19 the year before.
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