Keziah Lofton: Emergence of a Complete Player

Adjusting for Success

For as much attention as Lofton draws with the ball in her hands, she is an extremely unselfish player. She works with the opportunities in front of her and is happy to set her teammates up for success. Her ability to get around defenders and into the paint routinely creates big passing lanes to kick to shooters or cutters.

These plays highlight the mature mindset Lofton carries with her on the court and finding ways to win games. With or without the ball in her hands, she is able to quickly recognize areas of weakness in opposing defenses and works to exploit these any way she can. Whether it’s flashing into space to facilitate or score, Lofton does what’s needed to make opposing teams pay for their moments of inattention.

Independently possessing this level of recognition at this stage is impressive and speaks volumes to how well Lofton is able to process what’s happening on the court. She is a very high IQ weapon for her team and has displayed how effective she is at manipulating defenses and executing what she sees unfolding in front of her.

Lofton utilizes the screen and attacks off of it to see if she can score. The defenders do a good job of picking her up on the switch, but Lofton is able to maintain her dribble and court vision to find an open teammate in the corner.
Lofton again utilizes the on-ball screen and is able to survey the floor coming off of it. She quickly sees that both her defender and the switching defender drop to cover the screener leaving the big to run out on the perimeter to defender her. Lofton takes advantage by squaring up and knocking down the shot.
The defense is in the midst of rotating back to their positions, as the ball is swung around the perimeter. Lofton quickly identifies a growing space at the free throw line for her to cut. She receives the pass and immediately attacks the big for a layup.
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