The dominance LSU showed early in the NCAA season has seemed to fizzle out to start 2026. After losing its first game of the campaign on New Year's Day at home to Kentucky, then-No. 5 LSU women's basketball has been upset once again, this time falling to then-No. 12 Vanderbilt 65-61 on Sunday.
The Tigers struggled to keep up with the Commodores and, specifically, guard Mikayla Blakes throughout the contest. Vanderbilt held the lead after the first quarter, never trailed by more than seven points, and outscored LSU 8-3 in the last two minutes of the contest. Blakes finished with 32 points, four assists, and three steals alone, and Tigers head coach Kim Mulkey couldn't deny that she was a challenge for her squad to contain.
“The thing about her that is so impressive? She never gets tired. She never gets tired,” Mulkey said of Blakes. “She's mentally and physically in as good a shape as any athlete and basketball player that I've seen.”
Blakes helped lead Vanderbilt to its first win over a top-five opponent since 2008-09 and the first statement victory in head coach Shea Ralph's tenure. Ralph took over the currently undefeated Commodores in 2021 to try to rebuild them to their former elite status, and she acknowledged that topping LSU creates major momentum toward that goal.
“For me, it is part of the journey. This is the next step, right? But I'm enjoying every part of it, and I want my players to do the same because there's going to be hard days, too, and we've had a lot of them. This team in particular has had a whole lot of hard days,” Ralph said after the contest. “It's still only January. We have a long way to go.”
One of Ralph's decisions was to recruit Blakes. The reigning SEC Freshman of the Year leads the conference in scoring and has become a crucial part of the team's success this season after buying in to Ralph's vision for Vanderbilt's rebuild.
“It's a lot easier to go to, I think, top programs and just win,” Blakes said. “But I want to do the uncommon thing. I believe in my teammates, I believe in my coaching staff, everybody here, especially the facility. And we have all the resources, so why not win here?”
With the victory, Vanderbilt moves to 15-0 and into the top 10 for the first time since 2007, landing at No. 7. Meanwhile, LSU has slipped down the rankings and out of the top 10 to sit at No. 12. The Tigers will attempt to right the ship at Georgia on Thursday.
