Despite suffering a second consecutive defeat to hosts Australia in their three-Test series, head coach of Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls, Sasher-Gaye Henry-Wright, believes her team showed marginal improvement in several areas of their game.
The Jamaicans, ranked third in the world, two places below the world number one-rated Australians, were again overwhelmed as they went down 73-41 in the second match yesterday in Melbourne. The result followed Thursday’s 72-41 loss in the opening Test.
Gezelle Allison led the scoring for the Sunshine Girls with 16 goals from 18 attempts, while Simone Gordon added 13 from 19. Captain Shanice Beckford finished with 11 from 15 and Kestina Sturridge chipped in with one from one.
Henry-Wright pointed to a slow start as a major factor behind another heavy defeat, while noting that they have made some progress from the first game.
“I think the girls gave a much better performance than they did in game one, but we still fell short of the objectives that we set out for in this game,” said Henry-Wright.
“We really wanted to hit some scoring marks for our quarterly scores but, unfortunately, we didn’t meet those targets. We really wanted to limit Australia to under 15 goals in each quarter and we only achieved that once,” she said. “We also wanted to score more goals than we did in the first game, but I think our start is an issue and we definitely want to work harder on that.”
Australia dominated early, leading 20-8 at the end of the first quarter and 35-20 at half-time. The hosts continued to control the contest, outscoring Jamaica 19-13 in the third period to take a commanding 54-33 lead heading into the final stanza.
Looking beyond the series, Henry-Wright said the experience will be vital as the team builds towards the Commonwealth Games later this year.
“We still have a lot of work do, but this is Australia’s best team that they have put forward and therefore, I don’t think that anything will change; but our team will have some different rotations going forward into the Commonwealth Games this year. But we are really happy for this opportunity, because we can now look at how best we can put the strongest team together for the Games,” she added.
Henry-Wright pointed out that meeting performance targets and improving consistency will be key as the Sunshine Girls prepare for the final Test.
“We just want to go forward in the third and really improve the targets that we set. But it is going to take consistent effort, it is going to take good court plays in terms of persons doing the right things properly and taking on the lead and trying to break those zones,” she said.
-Robert Bailey
