Palm Beach Lakes girls basketball avenges district final loss, beats Jupiter High in regional semis
JUPITER — The Palm Beach Lakes girls basketball team struck back against Jupiter on Tuesday, avenging its district finals loss with a commanding 44-24 victory over the host Warriors in a 7A-Region 3 semifinal.
Junior Casey Lewis scored 10 points in the first quarter to kickstart an explosive Rams attack, helping Lakes (11-1) recapture the flawless form it showcased throughout the 2020 season.
And with a regional finals matchup on deck, the lone blemish on their record — an overtime loss to this same Jupiter (11-4) team two weeks ago — seems an anomaly.
“First of all, hats off to Jupiter,” Palm Beach Lakes head coach Cassandra Rahming said. “They’ve had an amazing season. Honestly, the last game, it was us. We couldn’t finish. We just worked on fundamentals to get things back into a rhythm, and that was it.”
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That rhythm started early, with Lewis setting the tone out of the gate with a game-opening triple.
“My coach gets on me about not shooting, so I had to make sure I got my shots off tonight,” Lewis said.
She would go on to finish with a team-high 12 points, a mark matched by senior teammate Deborrah Seitu-Redmon.
“We were just trying to find the mismatches because they play up man every single time,” Rahming said. “So we were just trying to go to the mismatch and the hot hand and Casey was unbelievable. It was just good to see her get into a rhythm and hit her first shot and get confident — because she can play. She really can.”
After Lewis’ opening shot, Seitu-Redmon got a clean look on a fast-break and nailed a no-doubt jumper to increase Lakes’ early lead, one the Rams never relinquished.
While Lewis and Seitu-Redmon combined for more than half of the team’s total points, much of the ball movement flowed through senior captain Zaida Gonzalez, who acted as a sharp distributor all night at guard — adding 10 points to her tally, as well.
“Our type of play is to play really fast-paced,” said Gonzalez, who will play college ball at FIU. “That’s what we work on in our practices: transition, transition, to push the ball ahead of us. Not a lot of my shots were falling, but I had Casey who came through tonight. That first game we played [Jupiter], her shots were falling, but she showed up big-time today. We really needed that. She’s really an x-factor for this team.”
On the other side of the court, the Rams turned up their suffocating full-court press early in the second period.
The defensive switch forced two errant passes from Jupiter almost immediately.
Faced with an early deficit, the Warriors often looked rattled, with Lakes’ pressure forcing choppy possessions and rushed shots.
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Though their season drew to a close after Tuesday’s rematch, Jupiter coach Michael Lynch was proud of his team’s accomplishments throughout the season.
“I’m just thankful that we had a year with everything that has transpired,” he said. “We had a good year, a great year. And they can always look up in the gym and they’ll see a 2021 banner of district champs, and they can’t take that away from us. It was a great run, and I wish Palm Beach Lakes the best of luck the rest of the way.”
In order for Lakes take this momentum into the regional finals Friday, Rahming pointed toward the keys of Tuesday's victory.
“Just defend and do all the little things,” she said. “Whoever it is. Defend, rebound, and do all the little things.”
Lakes will face the winner of Boca Raton-Deerfield Beach. The game was postponed Tuesday night due to a leak in the roof of the Boca gym. No makeup date for the game was announced.