Netball Worlds: Singapore lose 40-93 to Jamaica in final pool match

Story by Stefanus Ian/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, July 6, 2011 — Singapore were overwhelmed 93-40 by Jamaica in their final Pool C match at the 2011 Mission Foods World Netball Championship.

Singapore did well to score 40 goals, their highest in this tournament so far, against the heavily favoured world number four Jamaicans. Kate Carpenter, Singapore’s head coach, said their scoring was “the most pleasing” part of the game, emphasizing that the plan was to “enjoy the experience and to know that we are playing against possibly the team that could win the Championship.”

Oberan Pitterson, Jamaica’s head coach, was also pleased with her team.

“I thought the attack worked well, we were able to find the shooters very quickly, very easily. We struggled somewhat in the defensive area. We could have done a much better job tightening up in the circle but I am pretty much pleased with the performance,” said Pitterson.

Singapore did not make the best of starts to the match when Pearline Chen dropped the ball right after the centre pass. Jamaica did not hesitated and duly capitalized to score the first goal. The shuffle in Jamaica’s starting seven did not seem to make any difference. The towering goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler was quite a handful for the Singapore defense throughout the match.

Dominating from the start, Jamaica raced to an early 12-2 lead before Singapore finally clicked into gear. Asha Tett spearheaded Singapore’s resistance, making a few good passes and scoring some herself. The home side ended the first 15 minutes down 11-25.

In the 2nd quarter, Jamaica continued their relentless long balls to their GS Jhaniele Fowler who was in red-hot form. Singapore tried moving veteran Premila Hirubalan to the Goal Keeper position but the 22-year-old Jamaican was just irrepressible.

Singapore’s Chen Huifen tried her best to keep the offense going in the second quarter, scoring quite a few goals, including one long range shot to loud cheers from the home crowd. Li Ling also chipped in with seven goals from nine shots which was a much improved performance compared to her previous two outings. The local girls in blue went into the half-time interval trailing 22-44.

Singapore shuffled their players in the third, hoping to slow down the sunshine girls in yellow and green. At first, the decision to move Li Ling into the Goal Keeper position worked as Jhaniele missed a few shots. However, the eventual player-of-the-game quickly got back into her rhythm and started scoring again. Singapore’s eagerness at times proved to be costly as they turned the ball over more often in the second half as Jamaica comfortably pull away.

Singapore’s Charmaine Soh debut was a baptism of fire. Trailing by more than 20 points, Carpenter sent in the 21-year-old Charmaine in the second half and she shot an impressive 76%.

“I just played normally and took it as a normal match. It was very exciting to be on the court against the fourth ranked team in the world,” commented Charmaine after the match.

Being the surprise package, Charmaine managed to lose her markers quite often, scoring 13 goals out of Singapore’s 18 in the second half.

“She looked really confident and nothing sort of fazed her and I thought that she was delightful,” said an impressed coach Carpenter.

Alas, her offensive effort was insufficient as Singapore’s turnovers kept piling up. It did not help that Jamaica sent in Romelda Aiken for the fourth quarter to finish the job as she plundered 26 goals out of 28 attempts.

It was a clinical Jamaican scoring performance, with both Romelda Aiken and Jhaniele Fowler shooting more than 90%.

The Singaporean girls will look to build on their improving performances as they look to achieve their top-12 target against Fiji next on Thursday, July 7, 2011.

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