The Blakes siblings who beat the buzzer: Jaylen and Mikayla were the sport winners that very same weekend

Mikayla Blakes timed her jump right, grabbed the rebound off the front of the rim and threw the ball into the goal with 0.8 seconds left. Moments later, she celebrated Vanderbilt's first win over rival Tennessee since 2019.

Then something funny happened.

“After the handshake I thought, 'Who is that bald guy on the court?' I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,” she said of a passionate Vanderbilt fan storming the court. “I asked myself, 'Who is that? I know him.'

“Then I got closer and thought, ‘Wow. My father just made it to court. Where did he come from?'”

Monroe Blakes, a former player and Division II Hall of Fame member at St. Michael's College in Vermont, is typically reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble family, and the idea of ​​her father flying past security and storming into court makes Mikayla laugh. But Monroe couldn't resist Sunday when his daughter, the Commodores' freshman phenom, scored the game-winning goal in the biggest moment of her college career.

Just as he couldn't contain his emotions on Saturday when Mikayla's older brother, Stanford guard Jaylen Blakes, drove the length of the court at the Dean E. Smith Center and knocked down a game-winning step-back jumper from the left wing against North Carolina with a lead of 0.9 seconds.

Two children, two buzzers in two days, an excited father who was able to see them both in person.

“The word I keep using is 'amazing.' Blessed.' And I’m unsure that does it justice,” Monroe Blakes said. “I started playing basketball when I was 13, so I've been playing it for over 40 years. …But the two of them took me to new heights and new memories that I had never experienced in my 40 years.

“What is the probability that brother and sister would do (that) in a row?”

Jaylen, who spent three years at Duke before transferring to Stanford for his final season of eligibility as a graduate transfer, was no stranger to playing within the Dean Dome. He went 2-1 with Duke in three games in Chapel Hill and dreamed of getting his own moment at one in all the game's most famous venues.

The night before Stanford took the court, Jaylen spent a while desirous about former Blue Devils guard Austin Rivers, whose legendary game-winning shot against UNC in 2012 still lives on in Duke lore. He also remembered Wendell Moore's game-winning putback on the Smith Center in 2020 that gave Duke the time beyond regulation victory over the Tar Heels.

“I just dreamed about it,” Jaylen said. “And being able to be in that moment was special.”

With Stanford trailing 71-70 with seven seconds left, Jaylen hit the ball under the Cardinal's basket. He got the ball right back and stormed down the left sideline.

“With Seth Trimble I had a excellent defender at my side. So I assumed, 'Okay, he's going to chop me off,'” Jaylen said. “And as soon as he cut me off, I felt his momentum fading, so I decided to step back and take the shot.

“It was incredible. It was an incredible moment. When you take that shot, it's one thing that it's not just you taking that shot. It’s everyone who has supported you along the way.”

From the stands, Monroe felt like he was watching the play unfold in slow motion. It took him a second to realize what he had just seen.

“The ball went in. It went in,” he recalled. “That’s the game winner.”

In Nashville, Mikayla had just finished practice and was watching the game on her phone before heading to Memorial Gymnasium later that afternoon to watch Vanderbilt's men's team play Tennessee. She missed the real-time recording because her stream kept freezing. But when a flood of text messages and phone calls came in, she assumed Stanford had won and rushed to the locker room to get better service and rewind the feed.

“I saw him hit the shot and I was just overjoyed,” said Mikayla, a former five-star recruit who leads all freshmen nationally with 20.2 points per game. “I started FaceTiming my dad and then started calling my brother because he had already made it to the locker room at that point. So I just called my brother’s phone and texted him, just so excited.”


Jaylen and Mikayla Blakes. (Vanderbilt Athletics)

The next day, Monroe flew to Nashville, where his wife Nikkia joined him for Mikayla's game. The Blakes, who live in New Jersey, agreed that at the very least one in all them would do every part they might to attend every one in all their children's games – no small feat considering Jaylen and Mikayla play on different sides of the country.

When Vanderbilt lost a 10-point lead within the fourth quarter and it became clear the sport was coming all the way down to the wire, one in all the Blakes' friends said the quiet part out loud.

“It was funny, someone who was with us said to us, 'What if Mikayla hits the game-winner?'” Monroe said. “I say, 'No, I don't think it can happen again. This can't happen.'”

Jaylen, back on campus in California, watched all the game within the Stanford training room while receiving treatment. He also doubted that his family might be so lucky in a single weekend.

“I thought, 'It can't be possible for both of us to win in two days in a row.' And it came down to the last piece,” he said. “I saw the missed layup and he or she made it and when I spotted she made it, I ran across the training room screaming, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' It was special.”

Shortly after Monroe stormed the court to have fun, Jaylen asked his parents via FaceTime to affix within the fun. Mikayla later learned from her mother that the moment brought tears to her father's eyes. When Mikayla returned to the locker room, she had six missed calls from Jaylen.

“I took the seventh call,” she said.

“I’m just lucky to have her as my sister,” Jaylen added. “Happy to be her big brother.”

This week, Monroe finally responded to the 100 or so text messages he received as he continues to experience the culmination of perhaps the most effective moment of his life, as Mikayla joked.

Of all of the moments of relaxing within the garden for his children or helping Nikkia break them apart when the singles matches got too competitive, this was a moment the Blake family will always remember.

“One of the things I love about my kids is that they are very competitive,” Monroe said. “They compete with each other but love each other, so it makes each and every one of them better. It was just an amazing dynamic – this love and support for each other.

“They talk all the time, they give each other tips. She called him after the game when he hit his winning goal and he called her and that's why I'm so proud. They just put in a lot of work and I’m just happy for them at this moment.”



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