Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer
CONNIE FRANCIS, coach of Jamaica's Sunshine Girls, says she is optimistic her team can bounce back from its humiliating defeat to England on Monday night.
The world number three-ranked Jamaicans were thrashed 52-32 by England in game one of their three-Test series at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
"I am confident that the team can put on a better display to win this game," said Francis of tonight's clash. "However, we need to make sure that we take care of the ball and give our shooters the opportunity to score because we were more than 20 attempts behind England in the game,"she said.
Francis said that, overall, the team needs to play a better defensive game, especially in the centre of the court.
Francis noted that, in particular, goal shooter Romelda Aiken seemed to struggle against England.
"I thought that she had a challenge with the umpiring," the coach said. "She was being pushed and shoved and she wasn't sure what she was doing. Our emphasis in this game is to get the ball into the shooting circle and our shooters and they also need to assert themselves more because they lacked aggression." On Monday night, a closely contested first quarter saw the Jamaicans trail their opponents 8-6. However, the English came out firing on all cylinders in the second period and quickly extended the lead to 16-10 with less than six minutes remaining in the quarter. That forced Francis to call a time-out.
Even after the time-out, the number four-ranked England team went on to dominate the rest of the period and extend their lead to 24-14. England, who defeated world champions New Zealand in their last competitive series, continued their dominance over the Jamaicans in the third period and extended the advantage to 38-25.
Led by Louisa Brownfield's 31 goals from 39 tries, and Pamela Cookey (21 from 28), the red-and-white clad English team ran all over the Jamaicans in the fourth period, and with little effort romped to a comfortable victory.
Aiken (17 from 25 attempts) and Simone Forbes (15 from 18) were the top scorers for the Sunshine Girls.
