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 was like, ‘Who is this bald head on the court? I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,’” she mentioned of a passionate Vanderbilt fan who stormed the court docket. “I used to be like, ‘Who is this? I know him.’
“Then I got closer and was like, ‘Wow. My dad just made it to the court. Where did he come from?’”
Monroe Blakes, a former participant and member of the Corridor of Fame at Division II St. Michael’s Faculty in Vermont, is often extra reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble household and the thought 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.
Identical to he couldn’t include 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 readily available to see each in particular person.
“The word I keep using is ‘Amazing. Blessed.’ And I’m not sure if that does it justice,” Monroe Blakes mentioned. “I began taking part in basketball after I was 13, so I’ve been taking part in 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 odds that brother and sister would do (that) back-to-back?”
The face of a proud dad 🥹
Mikayla Blakes and brother Jaylen Blakes each hit sport 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 closing season of eligibility, was no stranger to taking part in on the Dean Dome. He went 2-1 in three video games in Chapel Hill with Duke and dreamed about having his personal huge 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 additional time.
“That’s just something that I was dreaming about,” Jaylen mentioned. “And to be able to be in that moment was something special.”
With Stanford trailing 71-70 with seven seconds remaining, Jaylen inbounded the ball below the Cardinal’s basket. He bought the ball proper again and streaked down the left sideline.
“I had a very good defender on me in Seth Trimble. So I was like, ‘All right, he’s gonna cut me off,’” Jaylen mentioned. “And as quickly as he reduce 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 moment. One thing about when you take that shot, it’s not just you that’s taking that shot. It’s everybody that has supported you along the way 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 mobile phone earlier than heading over to Memorial Gymnasium to see Vanderbilt’s males’s workforce 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 received and rushed to the locker room for higher service to rewind the feed.
“I saw that he hit the shot and I was just over the moon excited,” mentioned Mikayla, a former five-star prospect who leads all freshmen nationally in scoring at 20.2 factors per sport. “I started FaceTiming my dad and then started calling my brother because by that time, he had already made it to the locker room. So I was just calling my brother’s phone and texting him, just so excited.”
Jaylen and Mikayla Blakes. (Vanderbilt Athletics)
The following day, Monroe flew into Nashville, the place his spouse Nikkia joined him, for Mikayla’s sport. The Blakes, who stay in New Jersey, made a pact that not less than one in every of them would do all the pieces potential 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 turned clear the sport would come all the way down to the wire, one of many Blakes’ pals mentioned the quiet half out loud.
“It was funny, somebody who was with us said to us, ‘What if Mikayla hits the game-winner?’” Monroe mentioned. “I’m like, ‘No, I don’t think that can happen again twice. That can’t happen.’”
Jaylen, again on campus in California, watched your entire sport from Stanford’s coaching room whereas receiving therapy. He, too, was doubtful his household may very well be so fortunate in a single weekend.
“I was thinking, ‘There can’t be any way that we both hit a game-winner back-to-back days.’ And it came down to the final play,” he mentioned. “I saw the missed layup and she trailed it and made it and when I realized she made it, I ran around the training room screaming like, ‘Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.’ It was special.”
Within the moments after Monroe stormed the court docket to rejoice, Jaylen FaceTimed his dad and mom to affix in on the enjoyable. Mikayla would later be taught from her mother that the second introduced tears to her dad’s eyes. By the point Mikayla bought again to the locker room, she had six missed calls from Jaylen.
“I picked up on the seventh call,” she mentioned.
“I’m just lucky to have her as my sister,” Jaylen added. “Lucky to be her big 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 is likely to be the perfect second of his life.
From all of the instances he rebounded for his children within the yard or Nikkia helped pull them aside when one-on-one video games bought too aggressive, this was a second the Blakes household will always remember.
“One of the things that I love about my kids is they have a very competitive streak,” Monroe mentioned. “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 help of one another.
“They talk all the time, they give each other tips. She called him after the game when he hit his game-winner and he gave her a call and that’s why I’m so proud. They just put a lot of work in and I’m just happy for them in that moment.”
(Prime photographs: Grant Halverson / Getty Pictures; Andrew Nelles / USA As we speak Community by way of Imagn Pictures)
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