Jamaica's goal defence Nichala Gibson (right) catches the ball ahead of Australia's wing attack Jessica Shynn during the final game of their three-Test series at the National Indoor Sports Centre, Independence Park, yesterday. Australia won 47-31 to sweep the series 3-0. - WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
YESTERDAY PROVED to be another dark day for Jamaica's Sunshine Girls as they crashed to a 31-47 loss in the final game of the three-Test series against the number-two ranked Australia, making it a clean 3-0 series sweep at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
Led by a scorching 19 of 20 shooting by Melan Anderson and a 17 of 24 shooting performance by Catherine Cox, the Austra-lians proved to be too hot for a young Jamaica squad who in truth found real trouble to keep pace with them.
For Jamaican coach Connie Francis, the entire exercise was a learning experience for her young squad.
POSITIVES
"There were a lot of high points, even though we started really slowly. In the second half we got a lot of playing time for our youngsters and they played well," she said. "There were a lot of errors but the only way for them to learn is to make the errors and try to correct them."
The aggressive Australians went to work from the very start of the game scoring six unanswered points while at the same time applying high pressure defence which made it very difficult for the Jamaicans to score.
This resulted in the Australians ending the first quarter with a 12-5 lead from which they never looked back.
The introduction of crowd favourite young Romelda Aiken who had a 19 of 24 shooting night provided a boost for the offence, but the Australians effectively countered her high advantage with aggressive double teams.
INJURY CONCERN
Other scorers for Jamaica included Jodi-Ann French who was 4 of 8 and Latoya Thomas who was 4 of 5. Elaine Davis, who was substituted at the end of the first quarter due to an injury concern, also had a 4 of 5 shooting night.
Australian coach Norma Plummer, was very satisfied with her team's performance.
"We were very glad that we could come out here and get the win, but I had a couple of questions about the officiating in this game," she said. "Right now we have a couple of players out on injury, so it was good to get the experience for our younger players to get playing time."
- K.M.
