Ayuso’s 29 points not enough as PB Lakes falls in final bid

LAKELAND — Palm Beach Lakes senior guard Keishmy Ayuso was sure Friday’s game against Tampa Plant would not be her last high school basketball game.

If Ayuso had her way, she and her teammates would be playing in the title game Saturday night.

Ayuso tried her best, taking 27 shots and scoring a game-high 29 points, but it was not enough. The Rams fell to the Panthers 73-64 in the Class 7A semifinals at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

“She put us on her back and carried us as far as she could,” Palm Beach Lakes coach Cassandra Rahming said.

The Rams (21-9) came out of the gate slowly, and the Panthers (30-1) took an early 7-0 lead. Lakes stayed close to Plant for the first quarter, but the Panthers pulled away in the second. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Plant’s Nyla Jean put the Panthers up 17 at halftime.

Plant proved difficult to defend as four players finished the game with double-digit points.

“They were just disciplined and they hit shots,” Rahming said. “They hit uncontested shots, they hit contested shots. They made plays.

“They are a very wellcoached team. Just a great team.”

The Rams fought hard in the second half, cutting the Panthers’ lead back into single digits. But every time Lakes tried to steal momentum, Plant came back with crucial takeaways or baskets.

“I think we knew what to do too because last time we played them, earlier in the season, it was kind of the same thing,” Plant’s Honor Culpepper said. “At halftime, we had a pretty decent lead and then they came out in the third quarter and caught up and kind of got their momentum going. I think having played them before and having seen that before helped us out a lot.”

In addition to Ayuso’s 29 points, Zaida Gonzalez had 14 and Sh’Naya Anderson had 10. But the Rams only made 33 percent of their shots overall.

Even as Plant kept Lakes at bay toward the end of the fourth quarter, the Rams were still fouling and trying to gain any advantage they could find.

“We didn’t give up,” Rahming said. “We fought till the very end.”