As soon as I hit around 45 points, the donkeys keep going past my basket, even though it is fresh produce and it should drop into the basket just fine, but this ends up substracting lives from the counter rapidly and ending the game before I can hit 50 points. I usually dodge a rotten fruit just before that.

You have to empty your basket once it's full. Hit space bar.

I found that out very belatedly. The facepalm was real. ^^;