Rough win for Sunshine Girls

Sunshine Girls head coach Sasher-Gaye Henry-Wright says there is still plenty of work to be done after a hard-fought victory over Uganda in their Group B contest at the Commonwealth Games Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, yesterday.

The Jamaicans, who are among the favourites to win a medal, edged Uganda 55-49 to register their second victory in three matches at the tournament. The win came after the Sunshine Girls suffered a defeat to New Zealand in their previous outing.

Jamaica made a sluggish start to the contest and trailed 15-12 at the end of the first quarter. However, the fourth-ranked Sunshine Girls, who are two places above Uganda in the world rankings, responded strongly in the second period, outscoring their opponents 17-10 to take a 29-25 lead into half-time.

Both teams battled fiercely in the third quarter, trading goal for goal. Each side netted 14 goals in the period as Jamaica maintained their four-goal cushion to lead 43-39 heading into the final quarter.

Veteran goal shooter Romelda Aiken-George led the Sunshine Girls with an outstanding 39 goals from 42 attempts. Rhea Dixon, who started at goal attack in place of Shanice Beckford, added nine goals from 12 attempts, while Beckford came off the bench to score three goals from four attempts.

Despite securing the victory, Henry-Wright says she was not pleased with her team’s overall performance but was happy for the victory.

“We spoke about the things that we wanted to accomplish before this game. But I think we started out flat and I thought, in our warm-up, we were not sharp enough and we brought that into the game. But despite that ugly win, we are grateful for the win and that is good for us,” said Henry-Wright.

She noted that there were signs of improvement from Jamaica’s previous match, particularly in reducing turnovers, but stressed that the team lacked its usual sharpness.

“There are some improvements from the last game; we had less turnovers in this game compared to the previous game. But, really and truly, we were not sharp and that is what affected this game,” Henry-Wright said.

Rest and review

The Sunshine Girls will now turn their attention to hosts Scotland, whom they will face in their next Group B fixture tomorrow.

Henry-Wright said the team will use its rest day to recover physically, while reviewing its performance ahead of another important encounter.

“We now have to recover and go over the analysis and get ready for Scotland, because that game is going to be a tough encounter for us. So we are going to use our rest day on Tuesday to do a total analysis and ensure that the girls get a proper recovery, and just go through some plays in different areas of the court,” she said.

The Sunshine Girls’ victory put them atop Pool B with four points, the same as New Zealand, who have played one goal less. Uganda are third with four points from three games as well, but are yet to play against New Zealand.