Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph is starting to sound like a broken record.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Ralph said to open her postgame news conference Monday after No. 5 Vanderbilt downed No. 7 Michigan 72-69 at Prudential Center as part of the Coretta Scott King Classic. “We are playing really good teams night in and night out. And we are figuring out ways to win when we haven’t played our best basketball yet.”
Vanderbilt extended its program record win streak to 19 games. The Commodores are one of only two remaining undefeated Division I women’s programs, joining defending champion and top-ranked UConn.
Michigan gave Vanderbilt one of its hardest tests yet. The Wolverines trimmed a 19-point second-half deficit down to just two three times in the fourth quarter. But the Commodores didn’t budge.
“We just preached as a team to stay levelheaded — not to get too high, not to get too low,” sophomore Mikayla Blakes said. “I think the Mississippi State game we had before this was a great opportunity for us to practice late-game situations… We just fed off each other and gave each other energy because we can’t let our energy dip when we’re going through troubles.”
Vanderbilt features a group of talented players, who came there to do “the uncommon thing.”
The Commodores haven’t made it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament since 2009 and their lone Final Four appearance happened before anyone on this roster was born (1993).
But Vanderbilt believes the best is yet to come.
“We’re building something really special here,” senior Justine Pissott said. “I would like to come back to Vanderbilt in 10 years and say, ‘I helped build this program,’ and I think that’s why I’m here.”
On a day when Blakes struggled to get going, Vanderbilt had plenty of others step up.
Freshman Aubrey Galvan led all scorers with 20 points. Senior Justine Pissott, a Toms River, N.J. native, contributed 14 points with team highs in rebounds (eight) and assists (five) off the bench.
Vanderbilt improved to 2-0 against ranked opponents and 6-0 in SEC play.
The Commodores’ upcoming schedule is quite the challenge with eight of their final 10 games against ranked opponents.
While the team operates with a day-by-day mentality, Vanderbilt still allowed itself a moment to relish in win No. 19.
“We’re gonna get excited after every single win,” Blakes said. “But we just continue to remind ourselves, ‘This isn’t it for us.’ Yeah, we’re on a great win streak. We’re setting history and Vanderbilt history. But we want more for ourselves and we know that it feels like to get to the tournament, we just want to make it further. So these games are preparing us and like coach said, we’re figuring things out that we’re going to be needed when we get to March Madness and SEC tournament.”