Last Night in College Basketball: Mikayla Blakes Bested Caitlin Clark Streak

Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night. Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball. Vanderbilt sets program record(s), Blakes passes Clark Vanderbilt women’s basketball has never posted a 16-0 record at home. Or at least, it had not prior to Thursday. The Commodores faced No. 24 Alabama in Nashville, and routed the Crimson Tide, 85-60. This also marked its 12th SEC win of the year, another program-best. Vandy came out hot, putting 28 points on the board in the first quarter while limiting Bama to 16, then exploded for 31 points coming out of halftime, putting the game out of reach for good after the Tide had narrowed the gap in the second quarter. Alabama shot just 33% overall and 6-for-26 from 3, while the Dores forced them into 23 turnovers — Vanderbilt’s defense is at its best when it’s disruptive and capitalizes on the mistakes that it creates, and here it scored 22 points on those turnovers. The real difference maker, though, was sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes. She scored 35 points on 11-for-21 shooting, sinking half-a-dozen 3-pointers while adding 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and a block; it was her NCAA-leading 11th 30-point game of the season. A massive performance that propelled Vanderbilt to victory, but also Blakes to a bit of history: as the broadcast noted, this was her fifth game in a row scoring at least 30 points against a top-25 team, passing Iowa legend Caitlin Clark’s mark of four-straight such games, which was the most of anyone since the 2021-2022 season. Given Clark is the all-time scoring leader in Division I college basketball — men’s or women’s — besting any achievement of hers is both notable and exciting. On top of that, per Vanderbilt, Blakes is the first player to achieve that feat during the regular season this century, and the last to stretch the streak to five since a different Iowa player — Megan Gustafson — went six-straight in 2018-2019. Blakes, though, is just that kind of scorer. Clark, for her career, had 30+ points against top-25 teams 23 times in her career, far and away the most of anyone this decade — Blakes needs quite a few more of these to catch up, but she’s also just a sophomore. She’s got time to give it a shot. As is, Blakes is the scoring leader in Division I, at 26.9 per game, which is 3.6 more points than she averaged a year ago when she was named an AP 3rd Team All-American. And Vanderbilt kept pace with Texas for the second place in the SEC with the dub — the Dores will close the regular season out on the road against Tennessee, which has lost five games in a row and is 2-8 in its last 10. Vanderbilt has the head-to-head tiebreaker against Texas, so its seeding destiny is in its hands. MSU upsets Purdue on the road No. 13 Michigan State took on No. 8 Purdue, and came away with about as close of a win as you can. After going up 72-64 with 4:11 left in the game following a layup from sophomore guard Jeremy Fears Jr., the Boilermakers responded with an 8-2 run over the next two minutes to narrow the lead to 74-72. That would be as close as Purdue would get, however: Spartans’ senior forward Jaxon Kohler would hit a 9-foot jumper with 1:55 to go, and the Boilermakers would only score one more time the rest of the way. The lack of scoring — for both sides — wasn’t for a lack of trying. Kohler missed consecutive 3-point attempts on Michigan State’s next possession, getting a second chance thanks to an offensive rebound, and a block forced a turnover from a shot clock violation shortly after that. Purdue, though, could not capitalize on the misses, throwing up its own bricks and failing to keep Michigan State away from the rebounds again and again. When Purdue did get the ball back on a rebound with just 8 seconds left, the Boilermakers just could not get close enough to the basket, resulting in a 30-foot attempt from senior guard Braden Smith right before the clock struck zero. It didn’t find home, and Michigan State held on for the road dub. This was a great win for the Spartans in multiple ways, as it moved them into a three-way tie for second place in the Big Ten — the top four teams get a bye right to the quarterfinals of the huge, 18-team conference tournament, and now Purdue is in fifth, still in line for a significant bye, but not quite as good. And with the Big Ten as deep and competitive as it has been this season, the fewer games that a team needs to win, the better. [Matt Painter on Braden Smith’s 1,000-Career Assists: ‘I’m Honored to Coach Him’] Michigan State and Purdue both have plenty of games left, though: the Spartans have bubble hopeful Indiana and then Rutgers before taking on No. 3 Michigan, while the Boilermakers have an easier road with another bubble team in Ohio State, then Northwestern and Wisconsin. The difference in schedule makes it all the more important for Michigan State that it picked up this W. UConn just one win away UConn took on Georgetown in Big East play and won handily, 84-52. That part probably should not be a surprise, given the Hoyas 13-15 on the season and 6-13 in conference play. It’s noteworthy, however, because of what it means for the Huskies: they are now 29-0, and a single win away from an undefeated regular season. The bench picked up a ton of minutes in this one, but not before fifth-year guard Azzi Fudd scored a game-high 24 points with 6 3s, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and a block — her shooting has been great rather than stellar of late, but Fudd has more than made up for it by being a huge part of the Huskies’ oppressive, high-energy defense. Sophomore forward Sarah Strong played just 23 minutes, but looked as dominant as ever in that time with 13 points on 50% shooting, with 11 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal and block each. Maybe most important for UConn, as the Big East tournament and March Madness looms, is that freshman forward Blanca Quinonez looked like she has shaken the rust of missing six games with a shoulder injury all the way off. Quinonez scored 10 points off the bench in 19 minutes, adding 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals in that time. As the rotation tightens in tournament play, having Quinonez — who has professional and international team experience in Italy and for Ecuador, respectively — coming off the bench ready to contribute and keep the energy up is vital. UConn takes on St. John’s on the road in its regular-season finale on Sunday. And if the Huskies win that one, then the real work begins: there have been just 10 undefeated national champions in Division I women’s basketball. Texas routs Georgia No. 4 Texas needed a win to keep up with No. 5 Vanderbilt, and while the Longhorns also had a ranked-ranked matchup to get through, that didn’t slow them for a second. Texas downed No. 23 Georgia just as easily as Vandy handled No. 24 Bama, 79-50, with the Longhorns going up big early and never letting off the gas until the fourth quarter when it was too late for the Lady Bulldogs, anyway. Georgia shot just 38% from the field and a paltry 4-for-15 from beyond the arc — Texas wasn’t active from deep, making just six attempts, but it also didn’t have to since the Longhorns sank 53% overall and made 21 of 24 free throws. While the Texas offense can sometimes feature inconsistency and the lack of an ability to hit 3s when needed can hurt, when the Longhorns are able to build a lead, the defense grinds opponents down from there to make up for those deficiencies. For example: senior guard Rori Harmon scored just 4 points for Texas in 27 minutes, and no one had a big night with 25 points, or even 20. However, the Longhorns had 11 more field goals than Georgia and all those shots from the stripe, forced the Lady Bulldogs to turn the ball over 24 times — while converting those into 27 points — and controlled the paint. Georgia was the one that could not shoot to catch up, in this case, and Harmon’s so-so outing was no problem. Now, this kind of issue can bite Texas against better teams — Vanderbilt upset Texas earlier this year specifically because the Longhorns could not respond to a relentless offensive attack with any bombs of its own — but if the defense can control the pace, the great ones can fall, too. Three 40-point games (and one historic!) We got a trio of 40-point games out of D-I men’s basketball on Thursday. Stonehill’s Davante Hackett and Cal State Bakersfield’s Ron Jessamy had exactly 40 apiece, while Oral Roberts got 47 out of fifth-year forward Ty Harper to lead all scorers in both men’s and women’s basketball. Stonehill had a relentless offense all around: while its junior guard Hackett went 14-for-24, the Skyhawks as a whole shot 58% and sank 14 3-pointers while dropping 103 points on Saint Francis. Those 40 points represent the first time a Stonehill player has reached that level since the team moved to Division I ball, as well. Cal State Bakersfield and Jessamy were not so lucky. Instead of the junior forward being part of some larger offensive domination, he was the offense: the Roadrunners, even with Jessamy’s 40 spot, managed just 72 points against UC San Diego in a loss. Jessamy shot 14-for-21, an absurd 67%, and had an additional dozen points from the charity stripe. He also had 9 rebounds, eight of them defensive, giving his team plenty of chances to narrow the lead. The problem is that the rest of the Roadrunners went 8-for-28 from the field, and were rebounded by the Tritons, too. Harper’s 47 points represent a career-best and the most scored by any Summit League player yet in 2025-2026, and also contributed to a Golden Eagles victory over Denver. This was an upset, too, as Oral Roberts had just two wins in conference play, and the Pioneers were over .500 before the defeat. The Golden Eagles shot well as a team — Harper 12-for-24, the rest of the team actually an even better 17-for-31 — and as a unit Oral Roberts went 35-for-39 from the line: Denver lost because of Harper’s leading showing, yes, but also because the Pioneers clustered their 25 fouls together in the worst possible ways. Harper, though, did his part: he went a perfect 21-for-21 from the line. Harper is the first Division I player to manage at least 45 points and go at least 20-for-20 from the line since 1966 — that’s so long ago that it was nearly two decades before the NCAA even sponsored the women’s edition of March Madness. Western Illinois, Lindenwood prep for conference showdown The battle for the Ohio Valley Conference is also a battle for the OVC’s automatic bid: Western Illinois and Lindenwood are at the top, with the former 16-3 and the latter 15-4. Both teams won on Thursday, and are set to face each other on Saturday in their respective regular-season finale. Western Illinois has secured at least a share of the regular-season title already, but Lindenwood can complicate matters with a W, since it would start to bring in the “best winning percentage against a like opponent” level of tiebreakers, and it’s unclear who that would be just yet since the teams behind these two in the standings are still being sorted out, as well. [Get to Know a Mid-Major: Ohio Valley Conference] For any of that to matter, though, Lindenwood would have to win, since it already lost last time out against the Leathernecks, which was itself partial revenge for the Lions taking Western Illinois out in last year’s OVC tournament. As for Thursday, senior forward Mia Nicastro was her usual stellar self, scoring 36 points on a highly efficient 14-for-19 shooting while going 7-for-7 from the line. She picked up 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 steals to go with it, and led the Leathernecks to a 79-61 win over SIU Edwardsville. Lindenwood didn’t get the same kind of dominant performance out of a single player, but the Lions did shoot 54% as a team against Eastern Illinois, allowing the starters to all stay at 26 minutes or fewer en route to an 80-43 dub. Now, Saturday serves as a possible preview of the OVC tournament, where it’s very likely that one of these two will emerge as the conference’s representative in March Madness. Lindenwood is well-rested, but with Nicastro there — she’s fourth in D-I scoring at 24.5 per game, and sixth in the league in Player Efficiency Rating behind the likes of Sarah Strong, Audi Crooks and Hannah Hidalgo — Lindenwood is going to need more than just energy to down the Leathernecks. Iowa outlasts Illinois Illinois isn’t ranked, but it’s still a tough team: the Fighting Illini rank 32nd in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, behind Texas Tech and ahead of Iowa State, and are comfortably placed in Wins Above Bubble in a way that has them set up for March Madness, too. No. 9 Iowa was tested by Illinois on Thursday, but held on to win, 82-78. As has been the case so often of late, center Ava Heiden was the reason why. Heiden scored 28 points on 13-for-18 shooting, with 20 of those coming in the second half, and the 6-foot-4 sophomore pulled down 4 rebounds, as well. That part of her game was quieter than usual — she averaged 7.5 per game — but between the scoring and her teammates picking her up elsewhere, Iowa got through this one. Senior forward Hannah Stuelke added 18 points on 7-for-18 shooting with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. Sophomore guard Taylor Stremlow had a double-double with 11 points and rebounds each. And the bench added 15 points, 9 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals in 44 combined minutes, assuring the Hawkeyes that they could actually give its starters a few minutes here and there without inviting disaster against a game Illinois squad. That ended up being the difference, too: Illinois’ starters played the bulk of the game and contributed 73 of its 78 points, while Iowa was able to lean on its reserves. The Hawkeyes remain tied with Michigan for second in the Big Ten, and with one game left on the schedule and a two-game lead on 12-5 Minnesota and Ohio State, they are also secure in one of the byes that will send them straight to the quarterfinals. Illinois, meanwhile, needs a win against No. 22 Minnesota in its own finale in order to have a shot at the final bye in the 5-8 slots in the conference.