Young Sunshine Girls go in hunt of 5th place

JAMAICA’S YOUNG Sunshine Girls will, this morning, continue the revival of their Netball World Youth Cup campaign when they face off against Scotland in search of a fifth place finish.

The Jamaicans earned the right to fight for fifth place after beating the Cook Islands in the fifth-eighth place match, 57-47. The result marked the snapping of a two-game losing streak against England in Pool C, and Australia in the quarterfinals.

The Jamaicans had been found badly wanting against England’s young Vitality Roses, losing 33-64, before being even further outclassed by Australia in a one-sided, 33-85 loss.

The young Sunshine Girls had started their campaign brightly enough, being Tsonga 66-43 and Wales 46-35 before running into their road blocks.

On Friday, they had a change of fortunes against the Cook Islands.

The Jamaicans started quickly in what promised to be a tight game, leading 14-11 at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Cook Islands kept pace though, trading 13 goals with the Jamaicans in the second quarter to keep their deficit in check.

But the Jamaicans never looked back after that, outscoring them 16-11 in the third quarter and 14-11 in the fourth.

Interestingly, Shanice Beckford led the Jamaicans from goal attack, scoring 28 goals from 32 attempts, while Kadian Dehaney, playing as goal shooter, stayed close, scoring 25 from 28.

For the Cook Islands, Moana Terepai was unstoppable, scoring a game-high 31 goals to keep her side in the contest.

The Jamaicans now play a Scotland team, who, like they did, started sprightly.

Scotland first beat Samoa 51-49 in a nail-biter before running out 61-22 winners against Northern Ireland.

Then they hit a wall against Australia, who were comfortable 69-42 winners.

In the quarterfinals, Scotland were up against England, who won comfortably, restricting them to 33 goals while racking up 64 of their own.

Like Jamaica, Scotland snapped their losing streak in the fifth to eighth-place playoff, beating Malawi in a game that could have gone either way.

Scotland eventually came out 46-42 winners.

Higher up the table, today, England will play against South Africa for the bronze medal, while Australia and New Zealand play in the gold-medal match.