Dawn Staley Sends 2-Word Verdict on Vanderbilt Star Freshman After South Carolina Win!

South Carolina Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley spoke out Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes after their February 23 game.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley works with her team against the Vanderbilt during the second quarter at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley works with her team against the Vanderbilt during the second quarter at Memorial Gym in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The No.6 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks women’s basketball team produced the 25th win of their 2024-25 season on Sunday after cruising to an 82-54 victory over Vanderbilt.

The Commodores were not expected to put up much of a fight against Dawn Staley’s team. However, there was still some intrigue heading into this game; if only because of Vanderbilt star freshman Mikayla Blakes.

One week ago, Blakes scored a whopping 55 points on 15-28 shooting from the field during her team’s upset win over Tennessee. This set a new record for the most points a freshman has ever scored in a NCAA D-1 game; which she had previously set by scoring 53 points during Vanderbilt’s January 30 game against Florida.

Blakes (who didn’t start against South Carolina because it was senior day, prompting Commodores head coach Shea Ralph to start senior guard Leilani Kapinus instead) finished their Febraury 23 loss to the Gamecocks with 19 points sand 7 rebounds.

After the game, Staley offered some high praise for Blakes.

“She’s special,” Staley said of Blakes, per a video from South Carolina’s YouTube account. “Like, she’s special. I mean, to come in our league and to have done what she has done, I don’t know if there’s a bigger offensive impact.

“I mean, she’s very very efficient, and that’s what we tried to do, we just tried to make her as inefficient as possible,” Staley continued. “Yes, she’s gonna score points. But we wanted to make it difficult for her to score those points, and I thought we did a pretty good job.

“I thought we made her defend, and that’s part of the process of when someone is capable of a whole lot of points, they can’t relax on defense. You’ve got to make them guard, and I thought we did a good job with that,” Staley continued.

It will be fun to see how Blakes continues to improve as her college career progresses.