REGIONAL powerhouse Jamaica are assured of the Americas Federation of Netball Association’s (AFNA) senior crown when defending champions Trinidad and Tobago suffered a shock 48-59 defeat to Barbados in the penultimate round of the competition at the Jean Pierre Complex, Port of Spain on Friday night. While T&T lost their first match of the series, the powerful Jamaicans maintained their unbeaten record with two comprehensive 94-15 and 87-19 wins over Bermuda (in the morning) and the United States of America (USA) in the evening.
It was their seventh consecutive victory (14 points) and they are ahead of both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago who are bracketed together in second spot on 12 points each.
Last night, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were scheduled to clash in the final match of the competition that attracted nine teams. Based on the overall performance, the world’s fourth-ranked Jamaicans will start the match with supreme confidence and would be in a position to dictate the proceedings despite playing in front of T&T’s home crowd.
On the other hand, T&T’s leading shooters Anastascia Wilson and Joelisa Cooper; who both suffered injuries in separate matches would be hoping that they regain some measure of comfort to exert themselves in the summit clash to determine the overall champions.
In their last two matches against the USA and Barbados, both Wilson and Cooper could not have played together as they did in the earlier rounds and it reflected in the final scores.
Goal shooter Wilson scored 31 from 38 attempts while Cooper got six from seven in the last quarter and goal attack Janelle Barker 13 from 14 in the first three quarters. For Barbados, 6’2’ tall shooter Laurel Brown made full use of her height to convert 38 out of 40 attempts while goal attack Nikita Piggott netted 21 from 24.
Jamaica’s top two shooters Jhaneile Fowler and Shantal Slater have been in excellent shooting form throughout the competition. They have received enormous support from Anakay Griffiths whose percentages are also impressive.
Against the USA, Slater played the first two quarters and netted 27 from 29 attempts while Fowler played in the third and fourth quarters as goal shooter and scored 36 out of 40 shots. As goal attack, Griffiths played three quarters and registered 21 points out of 23 attempts while Venessa Walker got three from five.
Slater was in imperious form against the hapless Bermudians and scored 78 points from 85 attempts while Walker netted ten from 14.
Jamaica head the overall standings with 14 points and have so far tallied 628 points while opposing teams have only scored a total of 142 against them for a goal difference of 486. T&T’s second position is shaky should they lose in their final match and should Barbados prevail over St Lucia in their final-round encounter.
T&T have an overall 503 points and conceded 195 for a goal difference of 308 while Barbados amassed 513 points but conceded 228 for a goal difference of 285.
Should Barbados beat St Lucia and even if Jamaica lose to Trinidad and Tobago, the Jamaicans will still be crowned champion sbecause of their superior goal difference, being bracketed on 14 points each from seven victories.
Guyana succumbed to a sixth defeat when they surrendered to Canada by a 23-70 margin. Goal Shooter Angeline McCarthy scored 18 from 27 shots while Simonica Fanfair netted five from six attempts.
For Canada, goal shooter Cherrydon Nickie scored 53 from 62 shots while Sabrina Verteeg made 10 from 17 and Kelsey Binns seven from 15.
St Lucia defeated Grenada by 58 to 36 with Indira Laurencin the main scorer with 36 from 40 attempts. She received good support from Melissa Alfred who had 12 from 19, and Shem Maxwell 10 from 13.
For Grenada, Christa Stephen scored 22 from 26 and Cecile Roberts 14 from 22.