Strong second-half play hand girls victory

Jamaica's junior Sunshine Girls' head coach, C. Lloyd Walker, was full of praise for his team, as they put on a clinical second-half display to whip their England counterparts 51-39 on Tuesday night at G.C. Foster College, to take a 3-0 lead in their four-match series.

The Jamaicans dominated the first quarter, as they outplayed the English girls to take a 15-11 lead at the end of the period.

However, the Jamaicans found themselves trailing 29-25 at half-time. This resulted from poor passing and lack of good movements off the ball, as the English girls dominated the second period.

Despite their advantage then, Walker stated that he was confident his team would pull off the victory.

"I expected a tough game from England today (Tuesday) and I think that they really did well in that second quarter. However, I knew that our girls had the guts to come back much better in the second half and win the game," said Walker.

"We also had some new players in the squad that we wanted to give some expe-rience and so that also cost us."

Continuing, Walker said: "We knew that our first team could have taken back the game and so we weren't worried when we down in the game."

Shanice Lee, who replaced fellow goal shooter Shantal Slater at the start of the third period, had a good quarter for the hosts as she netted 10 of her game-high 25 goals, to give

Jamaicans a 38-36 lead at the end of the period.

Lee received solid support from Slater, who netted 20 goals from 28 attempts, as the Jamaicans outclassed their opponents in the final stanza. Goal attack Deneen Taylor also chipped in for the Jamaicans, with six goals from 10 tries.

Rachel Shaw, with 22 goals from 29 attempts, Amanda Davis, with 16 goals from 22 tries, and Alice Ewer, one goal from two tries, were the scorers for England.

The final match in the series was scheduled to take place last night at the same venue.