Tue | Nov 26, 2024

GAME ON

Sunshine Girls level Horizon Series, face decider tonight

Published:Tuesday | November 26, 2024 | 12:10 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
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Sunshine Girls goal shoot, Romelda Aiken-George (right) grabs a pass just ahead of England goal defence, Funmi Fadoju, during Game Three of the Horizon Netball Series at the National Indoor Sports Centre yesterday. The Sunshine Girls won 50-49.
Antoine Lodge
Sunshine Girls goal shoot, Romelda Aiken-George (right) grabs a pass just ahead of England goal defence, Funmi Fadoju, during Game Three of the Horizon Netball Series at the National Indoor Sports Centre yesterday. The Sunshine Girls won 50-49.
Sunshine Girls goal defence Jodian Ward (third left) rises high to make a nuisance of herself as England Vitality Roses’ goal attack Lois Pearson (third right) takes a shot during game three of the Horizon Netball Series at the National Indoor Sports Cen
Antoine Lodge
Sunshine Girls goal defence Jodian Ward (third left) rises high to make a nuisance of herself as England Vitality Roses’ goal attack Lois Pearson (third right) takes a shot during game three of the Horizon Netball Series at the National Indoor Sports Centre last night. Reacting to the action are, from left, England’s Helen Housby and Jamaica’s Shamera Sterling-Humphrey. Jamaica won 50-49.
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BUOYED BY a vociferous crowd inside the National Indoor Sports Centre, Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls levelled their four-match series against England’s Vitality Roses 1-1 with a wire-to-wire 50-49 victory.

Stand-in captain Shamera Sterling-Humphrey showed why she’s widely touted as the world’s best defender as she, along with Jody-Ann Ward, stifled the England Roses offence early in the game which resulted in the English turning over their first two possessions.

Needing a win to keep hopes of winning the first Rhone Hornsby Trophy on offer, the Sasher-Gaye Henry-coached team managed to edge their opponents 12-10 by the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Roses settled down and more efficiently controlled their possessions, converting them with more consistency but still found themselves playing second fiddle to the Sunshine Girls with the sharp-shooting pair of Shanice Beckford (19/23) and Romelda Aiken-George (30/34), ensured that the team kept their noses in front, outscoring their opponents this time around 14-13 to go into half-time with a 26-23 lead.

The Roses, despite upping the tempo in the third quarter only ended up trading goal for goal, without making any inroads into the slim lead the Sunshine Girls enjoyed.

The Sunshine Girls ended the third quarter with a 38-35 lead but were pegged back by the Roses in the final quarter, losing the stanza 14-13 to end the game just ahead.

In fact, it was dramatic.

With less than 15 seconds left to play, the game was tied and the Sunshine Girls showed great patience to keep possession and ensure they would have the final shot.

Beckford showed she has ice in her veins, when she took the final shot to send the crowd into a frenzy.

According to Sterling-Humphrey, film sessions of previous games was key to a game-three victory.

“I’m super happy because the fans brought us over the line and we’re grateful for that. I think defensively, we won the game over England. We did our game plan and revisited the game we lost to England and came back strong,” she said.

Jess Thirlby, head coach of England, pointed to early errors as the reason behind the loss.

“I think we made too many errors at the start of the game and everything that we expected from the Sunshine Girls came at us tonight,” she shared.

The decisive game four will take place tonight at the National Indoor Sports Centre at 7.

orane.buchanan@gleanerjm.com