BIRMINGHAM, UK— Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls extended their winning start in the netball competition at the Commonwealth Games by steamrolling Caribbean neighbours Barbados 103-24 in their Pool A game at the NEC Arena in Birmingham on Monday.
This massive victory follows double digits wins over Wales and South Africa last weekend and joins Australia in the lead with maximum six points.
Jamaica, who rested top scorer Jhaniele Fowler for most of the match, bringing her on only in the final quarter, held Barbados to under 10 points in all four periods of the game while scoring at least 22 points.
Led by 58 goals from Shimona Nelson, the Sunshine Girls led 23-5 after the first quarter and were well ahead 51-9 at half time and 73-17 after three quarters but did not let up, scoring 30 goals in the final period.
Nelson, who played in all four quarters, got her 58 goals from 60 attempts, Fowler scored 24 goals from 27 attempts in just 15 minutes on the court, Shanice Beckford scored 12 from 13 attempts and Rebekah Robinson, who came on at the start of the third quarter, scored nine goals from nine attempts.
Jamaica will next play Scotland before setting up a big match up against Australia in their final Pool game.
Paul A Reid
