Mikayla Blakes timed her leap completely, grabbed the rebound off the entrance of the rim and tipped the ball in with 0.8 seconds left on the clock. Moments later she was celebrating Vanderbilt’s first win in opposition to rival Tennessee since 2019.
Then one thing humorous occurred.
“After the handshake line, I used to be like, ‘Who is that this bald head on the court docket? I swear I’ve seen this response earlier than,’” she stated of a passionate Vanderbilt fan who stormed the court docket. “I used to be like, ‘Who is that this? I do know him.’
“Then I received nearer and was like, ‘Wow. My dad simply made it to the court docket. The place did he come from?’”
Monroe Blakes, a former participant and member of the Corridor of Fame at Division II St. Michael’s School in Vermont, is usually extra reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble household and the concept of her dad blowing previous safety to storm the court docket had Mikayla cracking up. However Monroe couldn’t assist himself Sunday when his daughter, the Commodores’ freshman phenom, hit the game-winner within the greatest second of her faculty profession.
Similar to he couldn’t comprise his feelings on Saturday, both, when Mikayla’s older brother, Stanford guard Jaylen Blakes, drove the size of the court docket on the Dean E. Smith Middle and knocked down a game-winning stepback jumper from the left wing in opposition to North Carolina with 0.9 seconds remaining.
Two children, two buzzer beaters in two days, one elated dad available to see each in particular person.
“The phrase I preserve utilizing is ‘Wonderful. Blessed.’ And I’m undecided if that does it justice,” Monroe Blakes stated. “I began enjoying basketball after I was 13, so I’ve been enjoying it for 40-plus years. … However the two of them have taken me to new heights and new recollections that in my earlier 40 years I hadn’t skilled.
“What are the chances that brother and sister would do (that) back-to-back?”
The face of a proud dad 🥹
Mikayla Blakes and brother Jaylen Blakes each hit recreation successful pictures inside 24 hours of each other.#AnchorDown https://t.co/jJZZnnXulp pic.twitter.com/mCSB9OxHe1
— Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025
MIKAYLA BLAKES WITH THE PUT BACK DORES UP BY ONE#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/uCXnEgAiXw
— Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025
Jaylen, who spent three years at Duke earlier than transferring to Stanford as a graduate for his last season of eligibility, was no stranger to enjoying on the Dean Dome. He went 2-1 in three video games in Chapel Hill with Duke and dreamed about having his personal large second at one of many sport’s most celebrated venues.
The night time earlier than Stanford took the court docket, Jaylen spent a while excited about former Blue Devils guard Austin Rivers, whose iconic game-winning shot in opposition to UNC in 2012 nonetheless lives in Duke lore. He additionally flashed again to Wendell Moore’s game-winning put-back on the Smith Middle in 2020 that gave Duke the win over the Tar Heels in time beyond regulation.
“That’s simply one thing that I used to be dreaming about,” Jaylen stated. “And to have the ability to be in that second was one thing particular.”
With Stanford trailing 71-70 with seven seconds remaining, Jaylen inbounded the ball below the Cardinal’s basket. He received the ball proper again and streaked down the left sideline.
“I had an excellent defender on me in Seth Trimble. So I used to be like, ‘All proper, he’s gonna minimize me off,’” Jaylen stated. “And as quickly as he minimize me off, I felt his momentum going backwards so I made a decision to step again and make the shot.
“It was unbelievable. It was an unbelievable second. One factor about once you take that shot, it’s not simply you that’s taking that shot. It’s all people that has supported you alongside the way in which on that journey.”
From the stands, Monroe felt as if he was watching the play develop in gradual movement. It took him a second to understand what he’d simply seen.
“That ball went in. That went in,” he recalled pondering. “That’s the game-winner.”
In Nashville, Mikayla had simply gotten out of form and was watching the sport on her cellular phone earlier than heading over to Memorial Gymnasium to see Vanderbilt’s males’s staff tackle Tennessee later that afternoon. She missed the shot in actual time as a result of her stream stored freezing. However when an inflow of textual content messages and telephone calls began to come back in, she presumed Stanford gained and rushed to the locker room for higher service to rewind the feed.
“I noticed that he hit the shot and I used to be simply over the moon excited,” stated Mikayla, a former five-star prospect who leads all freshmen nationally in scoring at 20.2 factors per recreation. “I began FaceTiming my dad after which began calling my brother as a result of by that point, he had already made it to the locker room. So I used to be simply calling my brother’s telephone and texting him, simply so excited.”
Jaylen and Mikayla Blakes. (Vanderbilt Athletics)
The subsequent day, Monroe flew into Nashville, the place his spouse Nikkia joined him, for Mikayla’s recreation. The Blakes, who dwell in New Jersey, made a pact that a minimum of one in every of them would do every part attainable to be at each one in every of their youngsters’s video games — no small feat, contemplating Jaylen and Mikayla play on reverse sides of the nation.
When Vanderbilt misplaced a 10-point lead within the fourth quarter and it grew to become clear the sport would come right down to the wire, one of many Blakes’ associates stated the quiet half out loud.
“It was humorous, any individual who was with us stated to us, ‘What if Mikayla hits the game-winner?’” Monroe stated. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t suppose that may occur once more twice. That may’t occur.’”
Jaylen, again on campus in California, watched all the recreation from Stanford’s coaching room whereas receiving remedy. He, too, was doubtful his household may very well be so fortunate in a single weekend.
“I used to be pondering, ‘There can’t be any approach that we each hit a game-winner back-to-back days.’ And it got here right down to the ultimate play,” he stated. “I noticed the missed layup and she or he trailed it and made it and after I realized she made it, I ran across the coaching room screaming like, ‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.’ It was particular.”
Within the moments after Monroe stormed the court docket to have a good time, Jaylen FaceTimed his mother and father to affix in on the enjoyable. Mikayla would later study from her mother that the second introduced tears to her dad’s eyes. By the point Mikayla received again to the locker room, she had six missed calls from Jaylen.
“I picked up on the seventh name,” she stated.
“I’m simply fortunate to have her as my sister,” Jaylen added. “Fortunate to be her large brother.”
This week, Monroe has lastly responded to the roughly 100 textual content messages he acquired as he continues to journey the excessive of what Mikayla joked could be the perfect second of his life.
From all of the occasions he rebounded for his children within the yard or Nikkia helped pull them aside when one-on-one video games received too aggressive, this was a second the Blakes household will always remember.
“One of many issues that I like about my children is that they have a really aggressive streak,” Monroe stated. “They compete in opposition to one another however love one another, so it makes every one in every of them higher. It was simply a tremendous dynamic — that love and assist of one another.
“They speak on a regular basis, they offer one another ideas. She referred to as him after the sport when he hit his game-winner and he gave her a name and that’s why I’m so proud. They only put lots of work in and I’m simply joyful for them in that second.”
(High photographs: Grant Halverson / Getty Photos; Andrew Nelles / USA As we speak Community by way of Imagn Photos)
