Mikayla Blakes timed her bounce 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 towards 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 courtroom? I swear I’ve seen this response earlier than,’” she stated of a passionate Vanderbilt fan who stormed the courtroom. “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 courtroom. The place 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 usually extra reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble household and the concept of her dad blowing previous safety to storm the courtroom 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 courtroom on the Dean E. Smith Middle and knocked down a game-winning stepback jumper from the left wing towards North Carolina with 0.9 seconds remaining.
Two children, two buzzer beaters in two days, one elated dad readily available to see each in individual.
“The phrase I maintain utilizing is ‘Superb. Blessed.’ And I’m undecided if that does it justice,” Monroe Blakes stated. “I began enjoying basketball once 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 reminiscences 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 sport successful photographs 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 evening earlier than Stanford took the courtroom, Jaylen spent a while interested by former Blue Devils guard Austin Rivers, whose iconic game-winning shot towards 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 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 beneath 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 if 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 considering. “That’s the game-winner.”
In Nashville, Mikayla had simply gotten off form and was watching the sport on her mobile 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 saved freezing. However when an inflow of textual content messages and cellphone calls began to return in, she presumed Stanford received 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 sport. “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 cellphone and texting him, simply 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 no less than one in all them would do every thing potential to be at each one in all their kids’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 sport from Stanford’s coaching room whereas receiving therapy. He, too, was doubtful his household could possibly be so fortunate in a single weekend.
“I used to be considering, ‘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 he or she trailed it and made it and once 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 courtroom to have a good time, Jaylen FaceTimed his mother and father 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 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 experience the excessive of what Mikayla joked may be one of the best 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 received too aggressive, this was a second the Blakes household will always remember.
“One of many issues that I really like about my children is that they have a really aggressive streak,” Monroe stated. “They compete towards one another however love one another, so it makes every one in all them higher. It was simply an incredible dynamic — that love and help of one another.
“They discuss on a regular basis, they offer one another ideas. She known 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 simply put a number of work in and I’m simply completely happy for them in that second.”
(Prime photographs: Grant Halverson / Getty Photos; Andrew Nelles / USA Right this moment Community by way of Imagn Photos)