Mikayla Blakes becomes only freshman named on late season watch list for Dawn Staley Award

Vanderbilt Commodores guard Mikayla Blakes is in the running for a huge honor. The Somerset, New Jersey native has just been named as one of the candidates for the prestigious Dawn Staley Award. She is the only freshman included on the late season list.

This comes right after her historic and record-breaking 55-point outburst, with a record 23-of-24 free throws made, in Vandy's 98-88 overtime victory over the Auburn Tigers. Blakes also finished the game with five rebounds, five assists and three steals, propelling her team to their sixth SEC win and 19th overall.

The Dawn Staley Award is an illustrious nod given by the Phoenix Club of Philadelphia that recognizes the best guard in the nation for a particular campaign. It is named after the now-South Carolina Gamecocks coach, who had a glittering women's college basketball playing career.

Now-Seattle Storm star Skylar Diggins was the inaugural winner back in the 2012-2013 campaign and Las Vegas Aces standout Tiffany Mitchell became the first of Coach Staley's players to win it in the 2014-2015 season.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish sensation Hannah Hidalgo won the award last season, becoming just the second freshman after Caitlin Clark to claim the honor.

Other names who are on the late season watchlist include Hidalgo once again, USC's JuJu Watkins, UConn's Paige Bueckers, LSU's Flau'jae Johnson to name a few as Blakes is one of the eight players from the SEC to be watchlisted.

In her first season with Vanderbilt, Mikayla Blakes is averaging a team-high 23.0 points, 3.4 boards, 3.1 dimes and 2.5 steals per game.

It's been an award-filled week for Mikayla Blakes

Mikayla Blakes received a plethora of awards this past week. She was recently named the AP Player of the Week for Week 15 of the 2024-2025 season, having received it for the second time in just three weeks.

The 19-year-old was then also named the USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week for a season-high fourth time in this campaign.

To top it all off, Blakes was named as both the SEC Co-Player and Freshman of the week, joining WNBA legend Candace Parker as the only ever rookies to receive both in one week.