JUPITER – The Palm Beach Lakes girls basketball team was locked in and ready to go against Jupiter last night (Feb. 16) in their Class 7A-Region 3 semifinal matchup.
The Lady Rams earned their 44-24 playoff win over the Lady Warriors by avoiding complacency and costly mistakes at practically every moment of the game.
Simply put, there was no doubt that Lakes would overcome what happened less than two weeks ago, when this collective suffered a crushing 50-47 overtime district title-game loss to Jupiter at the final buzzer.
“We came out aggressive, ready to go, really trying to take advantage of our mismatches, and just being very aggressive on the defensive end,” Palm Beach Lakes head coach Cassandra Rahming said.
Palm Beach Lakes (11-1) went into halftime with a 27-12 lead that felt bigger than it actually was. The reason for this: Casey Lewis (10 points; two three-pointers) and Zaida Gonzalez (seven points) combined to score more than the entire Jupiter team in the game’s first two quarters.
“In the first half, we came out with a lot of intensity,” Gonzalez said. “We were running the ball in transition and our guard Casey was on fire…That gave us a big jump.”
The second half was more of the same for Palm Beach Lakes, as the winning team got timely scoring in spots from both Lewis (12 points in the game) and Gonzalez (11 points in the game).
What also helped the Lady Rams was that they found a way to reach the free throw line quite often, as Deborah Seitu-Redmon (12 points in the game) went 8-for-10 from the stripe. Redmon was 6-for-6 on her free throws in the second half.
More than anything else, the Lady Rams limited the Lady Warriors opportunities to get back into the game at any point – particularly on the free throw line.
“I thought we were disciplined defensively,” Rahming said. “We didn’t get in any kind of foul trouble, which I’m very, very happy about.”
Lewis rated Palm Beach Lakes for how it performed against Jupiter (11-4 final record).
“It was good,” Lewis said. “If I had to grade it, I’d give it a B+ just for our squad and what we could do. We left a lot of points on the board. We only scored 44 points. It just needs to be better.”
Palm Beach Lakes advanced to the Class 7A-Region 3 final against either Boca Raton or Deerfield Beach. We do not know the Lady Rams next opponent yet because the Boca Raton-Deerfield Beach game was reportedly postponed last night due to a roof leak at Boca Raton High School.
With that said, Lewis revealed what it will take for Palm Beach Lakes to reach the 7A State Final Four in Lakeland.
“We have to stay out of foul trouble,” Lewis said. “We have to make our layups, make our shot, and execute what our coach tells us. She gives us all the information we need. That’s all we have to do. Just execute.”
OTHER FINAL SCORES: GIRLS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS
4A-REGION 4 SEMIFINAL: American Heritage (Delray Beach) 52, Mater Lakes Academy 51
Lady Stallions (12-4) will move on to the 4A-Region 4 finals against Monsignor Pace (14-4) on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.
3A-REGION 3 SEMIFINAL: Benjamin 59, King’s Academy 45
Lady Buccaneers (10-6) advance to 3A-Region 3 finals against Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate (16-5) on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.
2A-REGION 4 SEMIFINAL: Grandview Prep 33, Berean Christian 28
Lady Pride (7-4) will take on Miami Christian (14-7) in the 2A-Region 4 finals on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m
