Giddens leads Jamaica to close victory

NEIVA HUILA, Colombia (CMC):

Vanessa Giddens narrowly missed out on a double-double, leading Jamaica to a 69-64 victory over Mexico in their opening Group-B match of the FIBA Americas Women's Championship yesterday.

The 26-year-old centre scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds to give the Jamaicans a welcome boost of confidence in a topsy-turvy match at the Alvaro Sanchez Silva Coliseum.

Nicole Louden supported with 19 points and Simone Edwards landed a double-double with 13 points and 12 boards.

Jamaica opened the match with a strong offensive performance to take a 20-9 lead after the first quarter.

But they lacked the defensive prowess in the second period, when the Mexicans outscored them to cut the deficit down to two, as Jamaica led 37-35.

The third period was crucial, but the two sides played a balanced game in the third stanza, matching each other's offence and defence to leave the Jamaicans with a narrow 55-53 lead.

In the final period, both teams threw everything into their offence, but Jamaica resisted strongly enough to outscore the Mexicans and grab the opening win.

Jamaica face South American side Brazil in their second match today.

The 10 countries are trying to qualify directly for the one spot available to the Americas at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The teams that finish from second to fourth place will gain the right to play at the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament in June next year, with both the dates and the venue to be confirmed.

The top three teams in the Olympic qualifying tournament will join the nine teams that qualified automatically.