Barbados suffered their first loss of the Jean Pierre Under-16 Caribbean Netball Championships in Antigua last night when they were easily disposed of 38-21 by regional powerhouses Jamaica.
In a clash of the unbeaten teams, the Bajan girls trailed slightly at the end of the first quarter by four goals (9-5). But it was an unproductive third quarter where they only netted three goals that allowed Jamaica to put the contest out of reach.
Goal-shoot Simone Gordon was in brilliant shooting form netting 34 goals out of 37 attempts for Jamaica. But it was not only on the offensive end that Jamaica dominated, their swarming defence limited Barbados’ shooting opportunities with interceptions at the net and also in-coming passes through the center and on the wing. Zakiyah Kirton, Shaniqua Thomas and Shakeillia Smith had only a combined 34 attempts of which Kirton went six goals from 10 attempts and Thomas and Smith had six and nine goals each from 12 attempts respectively.
Simone Gordon had the hot hands for the Jamaicans.
Jamaica led 9-5, 19-10 and 29-13 through the first three quarters.
It is expected that both the Jamaicans and Barbadians will not be challenged within their remaining matches, and the standings should remain the same.
Despite the loss, Barbados were able to secure two of the shooting titles which they had won in 2012 earlier in the day. In the individual shooting competition, Alyssa Bynoe was crowned the champion as she scored the most goals (43 from 63 attempts), and was second in accuracy with 68 per cent, behind Jamaica’s Simone Gordon with 73 per cent from scoring (41 from 56).
Within the team shooting, the shooters collectively scored 110 goals edging out Trinidad and Tobago by the slimmest of margins after they scored 109. Jamaica placed third with 94.