Vanderbilt WBB Drops Second Straight Game: The Anchor – Sports Illustrated

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No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s basketball’s trip to Birmingham, Alabama did not go as it planned as the Commodores took a 83-75 loss to No. 17 Ole Miss Friday afternoon.
It was a game where Vanderbilt was playing behind from the start of the game. Ole Miss built up a 23-15 point lead in the first quarter and only expanded on it the final 10 minutes before halftime. The Commodores were unable to get much going offensively in the second quarter as they fell behind 44-25 going into the locker room.
In the second half, Vanderbilt did respond. Vanderbilt outscored Ole Miss by 10 in the third quarter and even took a brief 67-64 lead with five minutes remaining. But in the end, Vanderbilt was unable to get the stops it needed to complete a big comeback. Ole Miss went on a 11-3 run to retake the lead and regain control of the game. Ole Miss hit three free throws it needed to prevent Vanderbilt from changing the outcome.
It was a game where Ole Miss shot the ball really well from the start. A game where the offensive production was too little too late for the Commodores. Vanderbilt finished the game shooting 47 percent, but Ole Miss shot the ball at a 52 percent clip while the Rebels also won the battle on the board 35-27.
Mikayla Blakes led the scoring for Vanderbilt with 29 points on 10-for-24 shooting. Aubrey Galvan put up 18 on 8-for-14 shooting in the game. The loss was the second straight loss for Vanderbilt and the sixth consecutive loss to Ole Miss. The game was originally scheduled for Thursday in Oxford, Mississippi, but was rescheduled to Friday afternoon in Birmingham due to ice and inclement weather in Mississippi.
Vanderbilt will look to get back on track Sunday as it returns home to take on Florida. The Commodores and Gators are scheduled to tipoff at 3 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
No. 18 Vanderbilt men’s basketball vs. Ole Miss, 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
Vanderbilt track and field at the Bob Pollock Invitational (Clemson, South Carolina), Day 2.
Vanderbilt swimming lost to Arkansas 145-108.
No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s basketball lost to No. 17 Ole Miss 83-75.
Three Vanderbilt cross country athletes were given USTFCCCA All-Academic honors. Bria Bennis, Tyla Lumley and Claire Petersen qualified for the honors by having a team GPA above 3.0, an individual GPA of at least 3.25 and a USTFCCCA Division I Cross Country All-American finisher, or finish in the top 25 in at least one Division I cross country regional meet.
The men’s cross country team finished with a GPA of 3.65 while the women’s cross country team finished with a GPA of 3.70.
Vanderbilt men’s cross country is coming off a season where it saw its season end in the NCAA South Region Championships with a 16th place finish, while Vanderbilt women’s cross country’s 2025 season came to end with a fifth place finish at the NCAA South Region Championships.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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