BY KWESI MUGISA, Staff Reporter
National netball coach Connie Francis giving instructions to the team during yesterday's third and final 'Test' against Australia at the National Indoor Sports Centre. Australia won 47-31. - WINSTON SILL
JAMAICA'S SUNSHINE GIRLS crashed to a 47-31 defeat in the final match against Australia yesterday, handing the visitors a sweep of the three-Test netball series.
Led by a scorching 19 of 20 shooting by Melan Anderson and a 17 of 24 performance by Catherine Cox, the Australians proved to be too hot for a young Jamaica squad who in truth found real trouble to keep pace with them inside the National Indoor Sports Centre.
For Jamaican coach Connie Francis, the entire exercise was a learning experience for her young squad.
HIGH POINTS
"There were a lot of high points, even though we started really slowly. In the second half we got a lot of playing time for our youngsters and they did well," she said.
"There were a lot of errors but the only way for them to learn is to make the errors and try to correct them," she added.
The aggressive Australians went to work from the very start of the game scoring six unanswered points while at the same time applying high pressure defence which made it very difficult for the Jamaicans to score.
This resulted in the Australians ending the first quarter with a 12-5 lead from which they never looked back.
The introduction of crowd favourite, young Romelda Aiken, who had a 19 of 24 shooting night provided a boost for the offence, but the Australians effectively countered her height advantage with aggressive double teams.
Other scorers for Jamaica included Jodi-Ann French who was four of eight and Latoya Thomas who was four of five. Elaine Davis who was substituted at the end of the first quarter due to an injury concern, also had a four of five shooting night.
Australia's coach Norma Plummer was very satisfied with her team's performance.
"We were very glad that we could come out here and get the win, but I had a couple of questions about the officiating in this game," she said. "Right now we have a couple of players out on injury, so it was good to get the experience for our younger players to get playing time."
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