Mikayla Blakes Scores 27 as No. 8 Vanderbilt Opens With a Record 112-53 Rout of Lipscomb

NASHVILLE. Some season openers are about shaking off rust. Vanderbilt treated its opener like a statement of intent. The No. 8 Commodores beat Lipscomb 112-53 on Monday afternoon, Nov. 2, at Memorial Gymnasium, putting up the program's highest point total of this century in front of 7,023 fans on Education Day.

Mikayla Blakes, the reigning SEC Player of the Year and a preseason All-American, led everybody with 27 points, nine rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks in 27 minutes. Madison Greene scored 19 off the bench in her first game in 531 days, Aubrey Galvan posted 16 points and 11 assists without a turnover, Mia Woolfolk scored 15 in her Vanderbilt debut, and Aiyana Mitchell added 10 in 12 minutes. Vanderbilt moved to 1-0. Lipscomb, of the ASUN, fell to 0-1.

Here is the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab) and Vanderbilt's official recap (opens in a new tab).

The record book gets a workout

The 112 points set a Vanderbilt record for a season opener and were the most the Commodores had scored in any game since a 116-point night against Hampton on Nov. 29, 1998, according to the school. The total is tied for the sixth most in program history. Vanderbilt's 45 made field goals are tied for fifth on the school list and were the most since the Commodores made 46 at Tennessee State on Nov. 25, 2019.

The 63 first-half points were the second most Vanderbilt has scored in an opening 20 minutes this century. The win was the 20th straight at Memorial Gym dating to the 2024-25 season, the longest home winning streak for the program this century. And it gave Shea Ralph six season-opening wins in six tries, something no other Vanderbilt head coach has done to start a tenure. Vanderbilt is now 20-0 all time against Lipscomb.

Vanderbilt came in at No. 8 in the preseason AP poll, its highest preseason ranking since opening the 2001 season at No. 3, per the AP, after reaching the Sweet 16 last spring for the first time since 2008-09.

How it got out of hand

Blakes opened the scoring with a driving layup on the first possession, and Woolfolk followed with a layup off a Galvan feed. Three minutes in, Vanderbilt led 13-2. Lipscomb steadied itself enough to score 15 points in the first quarter, almost as many as it would manage in the second and third quarters combined, but the Commodores still took a 27-15 lead into the second period.

The second quarter is where the game ended. Vanderbilt scored 36 points in 10 minutes and held Lipscomb to nine. The AP credited the Commodores with a 19-2 run during the period, and the halftime score was 63-24. That 39-point cushion was built on defense turning into offense. Lipscomb kept giving the ball away, and Vanderbilt kept turning those giveaways into easy looks in transition and at the rim.

The third quarter was more of the same. Vanderbilt won it 23-7 and carried an 86-31 lead into the fourth. The margin peaked at 63, according to the school. Lipscomb, to its credit, kept playing and scored 22 points in the fourth quarter, its best period of the day, but the Commodores still put up 26 in the final 10 minutes to finish at 112.

Blakes sets the tone, Galvan runs the show

Blakes was ruthlessly efficient. She went 11 of 18 from the field and 5 of 5 at the line without making a 3, which says plenty about how easily she got to her spots. The nine rebounds and two blocks were a reminder that she is more than a scorer. According to Vanderbilt, it was the eighth time in her career Blakes has posted at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists, and the second time against Lipscomb, after a 23-point debut against the Bisons on Nov. 4, 2024.

Blakes also extended her streak of double-digit scoring games to 54, the longest by a Commodore this century and the third longest among active NCAA players, per the school. She became the eighth player in program history to pass 1,700 career points, as a junior.

Galvan, last season's SEC Freshman of the Year, was the quiet engine. The sophomore point guard shot 7 of 10, hit two of three 3-point tries and handed out 11 assists with zero turnovers in 26 minutes. It was Galvan's third career double-double and the fourth game with 10 or more assists. Galvan added four steals and pushed the pace all afternoon.

Greene's comeback and the new faces

The most emotional line in the box score belonged to Greene. The senior guard had not played for Vanderbilt in 531 days after missing last season with an injury, according to the school. Greene came off the bench and was the best shooter on the floor, going 7 of 10 overall and 5 of 7 from 3 in 21 minutes, plus four steals. Vanderbilt made only three 3-pointers from everyone else combined on 14 attempts, so Greene's range is going to matter when the opponents get better.

Five Commodores made their Vanderbilt debuts. Woolfolk, the Georgia transfer, started and scored 15 on 6 of 10 shooting with five rebounds, and the school said it extended Woolfolk's personal run of double-digit scoring games to 14 dating back to last season. Vernell Atamah, a junior who came over from Northwestern State, started and contributed five points, three assists, three steals and a block, although the shot was off at 1 of 6 from deep. Olivia Jones started and scored eight. Jhai Johnson grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots in 20 minutes off the bench, and Harvard graduate transfer Saniyah Glenn-Bello had three assists in 12 minutes.

Mitchell, a senior, was perfect from the field at 5 of 5 and added five rebounds. All 12 Commodores who played scored at least one point, and the bench produced 41 of the 112.

The numbers behind the blowout

Start with the turnovers. Vanderbilt forced 31 of them and turned them into 42 points. Lipscomb scored three points off Vanderbilt's 11 giveaways. That 42-3 split is the whole game in one stat line. The Commodores collected 22 steals, with Blakes, Galvan and Greene getting four each.

Vanderbilt also outscored Lipscomb 62-16 inside and shot 62.5 percent (45 of 72) from the floor. The Commodores assisted on 27 of their 45 baskets and won the rebounding battle 40-30. Lipscomb shot 30.5 percent (18 of 59), and the Bisons' best offense came from beyond the arc, where they made 9 of 28.

Miller led Lipscomb with 16 points and six rebounds on 5 of 17 shooting. Wiczek added 10 points and seven rebounds on efficient 3 of 4 shooting but was charged with eight of Lipscomb's turnovers. Elena Bertrand chipped in eight points and four assists.

Ralph sounded pleased with the afternoon without getting carried away. "I loved being back in Memorial, and I loved the energy of the gym having schoolchildren from the Nashville area. It was an amazing environment. I love this team. I'm excited about what is ahead, but we're going to take it one day at a time," Ralph said in the school's postgame release.

What it means for Vanderbilt

An ASUN opponent on opening night is not a referendum on anyone's Final Four chances. But the details of this win matter. Vanderbilt's best player was efficient instead of forced. The point guard did not turn it over once. A returning senior who missed an entire season looked like the team's best shooter. And the transfers fit into a system that already worked, with Woolfolk starting and producing right away.

The concern, if there is one, is perimeter shooting outside of Greene. Vanderbilt made 8 of 21 from 3 as a team, and five of those came from one player. SEC defenses will pack the paint and dare the Commodores to beat them from deep in a way Lipscomb never could.

Vanderbilt has since beaten Queens 100-42 on Nov. 4 with a program record for points in a half, per the school, and Morehead State 102-50 on Nov. 9 for a third straight 100-point game. The Commodores held at No. 8 in the latest AP poll and close their season-opening homestand against Western Kentucky on Wednesday, Nov. 11. Lipscomb was scheduled to visit Butler on Thursday, Nov. 5, after the opener, according to the AP.

For one afternoon at Memorial Gym, though, the story was simple. A team with real expectations played like it knew exactly what it was, and several thousand Nashville schoolkids got to watch a chunk of the program record book get rewritten.

Sources: ESPN, Vanderbilt Athletics, AP.

Photo: Vanderbilt Athletics.