Brother-sister duo accomplishes amazing feat in Stanford, Vanderbilt basketball games

Jaylen and Mikayla Blakes saved their best for last for Stanford and Vanderbilt, respectively, over the weekend.

The siblings from Somerset, N.J. hit game-winning, last-second shots for their teams — a rarity, if not a first, in Division I college basketball.

Jaylen Blakes, a senior guard for the Cardinal, hit a pull-up jumper Saturday against North Carolina with 0.9 seconds left in a game the Cardinal trailed 71-70.

Sunday, Vandy guard Mikayla Blakes did the same thing in eerily similar circumstances. The freshman's tip-in with 0.8 seconds left in the game against Tennessee brought Vanderbilt back from down 70-69 to beat the buzzer.

"Seeing my brother hit the game-winner yesterday, I'm like 'damn I've got to go get it'." she said after the game.

Earlier this season, Mikayla Blakes set a school record for a freshman by scoring 36 points in her SEC debut against Georgia.

Through Sunday, she's averaging 20.2 points per game on 44.6 percent shooting for the Commodores, who are 15-4.

Jaylen Blakes transferred from Duke to Stanford prior to the 2024-25 season. A graduate student, he appeared in 31 games as a junior with the Blue Devils in 2023-24, averaging 1.8 points per game.

This season he's started all 18 games for Stanford while averaging 14.8 points and nearly two steals per game. Getting the chance to play meaningful minutes against North Carolina meant more to Blakes than his teammates.

“I still have Duke blood in me,” he said in a postgame interview inside the media room at the Smith Center. “So it’s still GTHC.” 

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