For the second season in a row, Palm Beach Lakes is coming home from Lakeland without a trophy.
The Rams fell to Miami High 46-39 in the Class 7A state semifinals on Friday afternoon, losing in the state final four for the second straight year.
“If you look back over the game, we left a lot of points on the board in the first half and we left a lot of points on the board in the second half,” Palm Beach Lakes coach Cassandra Rahming said. “When we needed to get a stop, we did, but we didn’t finish the possession. … Our achilles’ heel today was defensive rebounding and just finishing in the paint.”
Palm Beach Lakes briefly held the lead in the first quarter, but Miami seized the lead before the period ended and never surrendered it.
Although Miami, the reigning Class 7A champions, never trailed in the final three quarters, Palm Beach Lakes stayed close behind for the remainder of the game. The Rams never trailed by more than nine points and spent most of the game closer than that.
Lakes trailed by as few as four points with 3:44 left in the fourth quarter, but Miami kept the Rams at bay with a 9-4 run before ultimately winning by seven points.
“It was a possession-for-possession game,” Rahming said. “Again, we would get a stop but we wouldn’t get the rebound. So it came back to haunt us big time.”
Senior guard and Florida International signee Zaida Gonzalez led Palm Beach Lakes with 16 points. Junior forward Casey Lewis was the only other Ram to reach double-digits, finishing the game with 10 points and a team-best seven rebounds. Junior guard Janay Quinn led Miami with 15 points.
Although Lakes loses Gonzalez, their top scorer this season, and Deborrah Seitu-Redmon, their No. 2 scorer, they return Lewis and several other key players for next season’s team.
“I just told them we’ve got to shake this off and get back in the gym and work on the things that matter, get fundamentally sound so we can be better and try to come back at it next year and see how it goes,” Rahming said.
