NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes and Shea Ralph earned Tennessee Sports Writers Association Women’s Basketball Player and Coach of the Year honors, respectively, as announced Wednesday by the organization.
Mikayla Blakes averaged 27.0 points, 4.5 assists and 2.9 steals per game this season, shooting 45.8 percent from the floor and 36.1 percent from behind the arc. Her 27.0 points per game led NCAA Division I in scoring and set the Vanderbilt single-season scoring record. Her 918 points are the most scored in a season in SEC history and set the NCAA’s all-time sophomore scoring record.
Blakes posted 13 games with 30 or more points, which led the nation and is the most 30-point performances by an SEC player this century. She averaged 30.5 points per game in SEC play while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor and 39.8 percent from behind the arc. She is the first SEC player this century to average over 30 points per game in league play. She recorded 10 of her 12 30-point efforts in the SEC, which includes a season-high 38 points at Mississippi State.
Blakes earned First Team All-America accolades from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, The Athletic, USA Today, ESPN and The Sporting News. The sophomore guard was named SEC Player of the Year and First Team All-SEC by both the league’s coaches and USA Today. Additionally, she was a finalist for the Wooden Award, the Honda Award, the Naismith Trophy Player of the Year and the Wade Trophy.
In her fifth season, Ralph led the Commodores to their most successful regular season in school history, guiding the team to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 17 seasons. Vanderbilt posted a 29-5 overall record, including 13-3 in SEC games. The squad’s 29 wins are the third-most in program history while the 13 SEC victories set the school record for the most conference victories in a season.
The Commodores earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and hosted March Madness games in Memorial Gymnasium for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign. Vanderbilt concluded the SEC regular season tied for second place, matching the best conference finish in program history. Ralph led Vanderbilt to a Top 5 ranking in both the AP Top 25 and the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Commodores spent five weeks inside the top five, while Vanderbilt was ranked in the top 10 in both polls for 12 consecutive weeks.
Vanderbilt recorded a perfect 18-0 mark at Memorial Gymnasium, marking the first time in program history that the Commodores went undefeated at home in a season. The team opened the campaign by winning a school-record 20-straight games. Vanderbilt posted seven wins against ranked foes this season, the most in a regular season since 1995-96.