By Charmaine Austin, Staff Reporter
Sunshine Girls Simone Forbes (left), Nichala Gibson (centre)
and Tasha Morgan run a celebratory lap on the court after fourth-ranked Jamaica
defeated world champions Australia 49-46 in a practice match at G.C. Foster College
yesterday
CARLA WILLIAMS' 96 per cent shooting average and a last quarter resurgence led Jamaica's Sunshine Girls to a 49-46 victory over world netball champions Australia in their third practice match at G.C. Foster College yesterday.
Under-21 representative Williams, who made her senior team debut against New Zealand in a tri-Test series last year, defied the Aussie defence and shot 21 of 22 attempts. Elaine Davis also averaged in the high 90s with 17 of 18 tries with Simone Forbes getting six of eight and Connie Francis five of six.
The win is being celebrated as a major accomplishment as it is the first time since a 1998 Test series that the Jamaicans beat the Aussies.
"I'm so elated. I'm too happy. Beating Australia is by no means an easy thing to do and for us to be able to do that today (yesterday), I think is absolutely wonderful," said Jamaica's captain, Oberon Pitterson.
"Hungry is what we were. We started out a bit tentative but we wanted the win so bad that we went out and did what he had to do to achieve it," she said.
Numerous turnovers by Jamaica's attack at the start of the match gave the Aussies the push they needed to secure an 11-4 lead. Jamaica called a time-out at that point and, when they returned, brought with them a fighting spirit that had them trailing just two goals behind at the end of the first quarter.
The score then was 14-12.
Changes were made in the shooting circle with Forbes replacing Francis while wing attack Nadine Bryan replaced Sharon Wiles at centre and Tasha Morgan took her spot at wing attack.
This combination worked in spurts but the Aussies still maintained the lead at halftime and were ahead 25-22.
Jamaica had a disastrous third quarter and the Australians used the opportunity to jump seven goals ahead. Experimenting with a different combination was part of the plan for this period, explained Jamaica's assistant coach Janet Guy, but the Aussies had no idea what awaited them as the game drew to a close.
Francis and Williams manned the shooting circle, Pitterson and Nichala Gibson stood strong at defence, Bryan remained at centre, Wiles at wing defence and Tiffannie Wolfe at wing attack sprung the shock.
Jamaica closed in on the lead and took over the game for the first time at 42-41. They pulled away to lead by two goals but Australia closed the gap to level the score at 44-44.
With four minutes on the clock and Jamaica ahead 46-44 a win was still questionable but then the shooters failed to miss and with the defence's valuable interceptions saw the team play confidently to win by three goals.
"As I've said so many times before, Jamaica's got an excellent team. They can never be underestimated. We got many opportunities but we made some bad passes and dropped a lot of balls and although we made some good interceptions, we just couldn't capitalise," said Australia's coach Jill McIntosh.
The teams meet in the final practice match tomorrow at Northern Caribbean University. Match time is 4:30 p.m. and expectations are high for another Jamaica win.
"We're very confident going into Thursday's game. If we play like we did today (yesterday), I'm certain we can pull off another win," Pitterson said.
