Player Profile: Makayla Best

As we move into the start of the season I will not only be finishing previews of most of the conferences in Southeastern Illinois and all of the teams in those conferences, I will also be profiling many of the girls that are the top players in the area that you need to know about. I will use the same set of questions with each player, but of course the answers they provide and my experiences watching that player will cause each article to be a little different. Makayla Best is a 5'6 junior at O'Fallon that averaged 6.5 points per game, 2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Mikayla was a 4th or 5th option as a Sophomore but is poised to make a breakout this year. Mikayla is a hard worker that her Coach Nick Knolhoff praises for being very coachable and having a high basketball IQ. Makayla is a combo guard that can be equally effective handling the ball and scoring the ball. She is very quick so she can get where she wants to get on the court to create scoring opportunities. Makayla spent her summer playing a busy schedule with her school team.The team won a lot of games and really built up the team chemistry playing and spending time together preparing for the season. During the spring and July Makayla was a part of the St Louis Eagles 2020 team. This was her first summer playing with a big program like that and really enjoyed the experience. They had a very successful summer making deep runs in some very big tournaments. Makayla really enjoyed one of their first trips to the Boo Williams tourney in Virginia. It was her first taste of that level of tourney and the team made the final 4. To top it off Makayla played a good tourney so it was an experience that she will remember. Mikayla feels like her abilities as a team leader and being able to influence the other players on her team are her best qualities. She has been working hard on all of her skills including shooting, ball handling and finishing at the rim. With the graduation of the top 2 scorers on last years team Makayla will have the opportunity to score more this year.She will have a bigger role overall. She has stated that she really likes to watch Kyrie Irving because he can do it all on the basketball floor. This is the way she approaches the game, trying to affect it in as many ways as she can. Makayla hopes to use her basketball ability to gain a scholarship to a school where she can major in Civil Engineering. She has has interest from SIUE and Bradley. As she continues to improve I am sure the list will continue to grow and offers will come. Makayla and her Lady Panther teammates have big goals for the 2018-19 season and she will certainly need to be a big part if they are going to reach those goals. It should be a fun team to watch.