Sunshine blanket

AS THE pot covers rang out among the din of an excited crowd at the National Indoor Sports Centre, the Sunshine Girls completed a sweep of their three-match Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series in a 58-47 win against South Africa in the series finale last night.

Having already won the series when they entered the final match with an unassailable 2-0 lead, the Jamaicans came into yesterday’s match determined to end on a high.

Sunshine Girls head coach Sasher-Gaye Henry was beaming with pride, expressing confidence in her players.

She said this is just the start for the national programme as they now look to continue their work both on and off the court.

“We are excited for the win and we’re very grateful for the opportunity,” Henry stated in her post-match interview.

“This is a journey we have started and it is our second encounter and we’re truly grateful for the results we have had.”

“We want to recover and we want to build on these ladies. The girls will go back to the leagues. We will be working hard on our skills development and we will be looking at other prospects. It is a long journey ahead and we still want to bring in more persons, based on what we have right now.”

FAST START

The Jamaicans got off to a fast start, racing to a 10-goal lead in just the first six minutes.

The South Africans would find their footing soon after, as the early introduction of Elmere van de Berg and Kamogelo Maseko helped them recover some attacking fervour.

The duo’s combination in the goal third closed the gap to a respectable five-goal deficit, the quarter ending 14-9. The performance was much improved, given the 11-1 start from which they were forced to recover.

The second quarter was, however, the Shimona Jok show, the ace continuing the form she had shown all series.

Jok dominated the shooting circle, sinking 37 goals from her 40 attempts to end the series with an impressive record of only six missed attempts across all three games.

The goal shooter helped the Sunshine Girls open up their second 10-point lead of the game to close out the second quarter 29-19.

The third quarter was much of the same, as Jamaica continued to be aggressive in the shooting circle with Jok and Beckford combinations proving too much for the SPAR Proteas defence.

The Sunshine Girls ended the third quarter with a staggering 45-32 lead before they took their foot off the pedal a little to end the match 58-47.

Shanice Beckford was also in fine form for Jamaica on the night, tallying 14 goals from 19 attempts with Rhea Dixon, who only featured in the first quarter, scoring a perfect five from five.

The young Simone Gordon also featured in the game, replacing Jok in the final minutes, adding two goals to the tally from her five attempts.

Jenny van Dyk, South Africa’s head coach, said, despite the sweep, her team will leave the series having seen several positives from their play.

“First of all, congratulations to the Jamaica Sunshine Girls! It was another great performance from them and I really loved today’s game,” she said.

“They might have won the war but we definitely won some of the battles today. After not a great start, we pulled it back and I’m so proud of our team. We are definitely coming and the rest of the world needs to be very aware.”

Maseko ended the game with 16 goals from 17 attempts, providing good assistance to van de Berg, who had 30 from 33. The game had begun with Nicole Breedl, who had one from two, while Ine-Mari Venter failed to score from her one attempt.

The series win was Jamaica’s second consecutive victory following their 2-1 win over England in the Vitality Netball Horizon Series two months ago.

gregory.bryce@gleanerjm.com