- Jamaica 44-39 Uganda
Having lost to Botswana yesterday, the game against Uganda She Pearls was a win or bounce for Jamaica at the ongoing 2017 Netball World Youth Cup.
And Jamaica treated it as such to beat Uganda’s She Pearls 44-39 to join them in the last 8.
Jamaica turned in stellar performance especially in the first three quarters mostly feeding of She Pearls’ unforced errors.
A 9-7 lead for Jamaica just over midway the first quarter turned into a 14-8 lead at the end of the 15 minutes. They extended the dominance over Uganda into the second quarter to lead by as many as 15 goals before She Pearls cut the deficit to12 (29-17) at halftime.
The Jamaicans proved too big and put to full use of the height advantage over the Ugandans on both ends of the court in the first three quarters and tried to quite the crowd that was behind Uganda.
On the offensive end, Jamaica used the high ball into the D each time the got into the attacking third and it got to the shooter Shimona Nelson who gave Joan Nampungu no chance while on defense they forced She Pearls to make the back pass and gave little room for a step in for the shooters Zam Seera and Irene Eyaru.
Trailing 38-25 after three quarters, Uganda got off the blocks first in the fourth quarter scoring three quick goals much to the delight of the crowd but the Jamaicans answered right back to keep a double figure advantage that would see them through.
However, like it was yesterday against Botswana, they almost collapsed late in period and the She Pearls – with the backing of the home crowd – cut the deficit to 5 at the end of the 15 minutes.
Despite having the same points (6), Uganda topped Pool C with a better goal difference (78) followed by Jamaica (53) and hosts Botswana (53) finished third to crash out and will only play for placement 9-12.
The other teams in the last eight are favourites New Zealand, England and Australia as well as South Africa, Scotland and Fiji.
The eight team were pooled in two groups with Uganda joining New Zealand, South Africa and Fiji in Pool E while England, Australia, Scotland and Jamica make up Pool F.
