Dawn Staley makes her feelings known on Mikayla Blakes after South Carolina crush Vanderbilt

Dawn Staley's South Carolina defeated Vanderbilt 82-54 on Feb 23. One of the biggest names to watch out for in the growing Vanderbilt team is star freshman Mikayla Blakes, who set the NCAA Division-I record for most points scored by a freshman last week.

She surpassed Elena Delle Done's record (54 points) who was a redshirt freshman, and previously also surpassed JuJu Watkins' true freshman record (51 points).

During the post-game press conference, Dawn Staley mentioned Mikayla twice. Firstly, when Staley was asked if Mikayla Blakes was a prominent figure in their scouting report, she replied (0:50 onwards):

“Yeah, she's special, like she's special. I mean to come in our league and to have done what she's 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. Yes she's going to 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 did."

Mikayla Blakes celebrates with Vanderbilt teammates after setting NCAA freshman record vs Auburn [Vanderbilt v Auburn - Source: Getty]

"I thought we made her defend and that's part of the process of, when someone is capable of scoring a whole lot of points they can't relax on defense, you got to make them guard, and I thought we did a good job with that.”, she further added.

Later in the press conference, Dawn Staley was asked what she felt about Shea Ralph rebuilding Vanderbilt into a tournament team. There again she mentioned how Mikayla Blakes is a foundational piece in the Vanderbilt program.

“She's done great. One is just Talent you know, we all know that Shea can coach , she can coach the game. Then it's about getting talent, you know Blakes helps, Pierre helps like they are they are the cornerstone of their future and I do think you know people are going to want to play with them.

"She's right there I think she'll be a tournament team no doubt. I know she's not getting into the results as far as the games but I think her body of work proves that she should be part of the 68.”

How did Mikayla Blakes perform vs Dawn Staley, South Carolina?

Mikayla Blakes in action during South Carolina v Vanderbilt - Source: Getty

Despite being one of Vanderbilt's best scorers, Mikayla Blakes started the South Carolina game on the bench. She played 31 minutes in the blowout loss but led all scorers for Vanderbilt with 19 points. She shot 5 of 15 from the floor, going 2 of 5 from beyond the arc, and made 7 of her 8 free throws in the game.

Blakes also had seven rebounds and two assists but that was not enough as South Carolina dismantled Vanderbilt in this blowout loss.