The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: Hot Jamalco burn Tivoli in game one of netball finals

Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Tivoli's goalshooter Kasey Evering catches the ball ahead of Jamalco's Naudia Brown in action from game one of the Jamaica Netball Association's (JNA)/Berger Paints Super League final at the National Arena last night. Jamalco won 56-49. - peta-gaye clachar

Defending champions Jamalco, led by a game-high 40 goals from 50 attempts by national representative Elaine Davis, defeated Tivoli Gardens 'A' 56-49 in game one of the best-of-three finals of the Jamaica Netball Association's (JNA)/ Berger Paints Super League competition at the National Arena last night.

Jamalco, who are seeking their sixth consecutive hold on the trophy, dominated the game from the opening whistle, and held a 28-20 lead at half-time.

Stepped up defence

The Winston Nevers-coached Jamalco stepped up their defence in the third period, which saw them outscoring their opponents (12-9), for a 42-31 lead at the end of the quarter.

The west Kingston-based Tivoli Gardens fought their way back into the game in the fourth period through their national player Kasey Evering, who sank 10 of her team-high 35 goals to cut the deficit to eight with less than three minutes remaining.

However, the Clarendon based-team held on for the victory, as Davis received solid support from teammates Marsha Murphy (nine goals from 13 attempts) and Margaret Lawrence (seven goals from eight tries).

Good team performance

"It was a good team performance because we have the depth of the bench and that was what took us through to this victory today," said Nevers.

"We are also the fitter team and our national shooter Elaine (Davis) gave us a wonderful performance inside the circle because I told them from the start that as long as we converted our goals there was no way we were going to lose this game," he said.

Sylvester Campbell, coach of Tivoli Gardens said: "It was a tough loss for us in the sense that we didn't play well inside the centre court but I thought that we delivered well in our attacking area.

Campbell added: "Our defence really tried their best, but our main problem was in our centre court and we need to fix that for our next game on Saturday."