'They are more relaxed now'

• Sunshine Girls rally from nervous start to hammer South Africa in opener

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

NEWTON, Singapore:

JAMAICA'S head coach, Oberon Pitterson, said victory in their first game has eased tension among the Sunshine Girls, who are aiming to go all the way and win the Missions Foods World Netball Championships.

The Sunshine Girls, who are ranked fourth in the world, recovered from a shaky start to thrash South Africa 72-45 in their opening game at the Singapore National Indoor Stadium on Monday.

"It was good to get the monkey off our backs for sure," said Pitterson. "I thought they were very nervous and you could tell there were tight, but they had some pretty nice patches.

"The good thing about it is that they really knew that they had to get it a bit smoother and they really did that coming towards the end.

"I think they are more relaxed now, but not too overly relaxed, but they got this one out of the way. I think that they were anxious, having
been here for over a week, and so the anxiety has gone and the bubbles
have gone; and so they are ready," Pitterson exclaimed.

The
Sunshine Girls started very tentatively as they trailed 8-7 with four
minutes remaining in the first period. However, they rallied to close
out the quarter on an 8-4 run to take a 15-11 lead at the end of the
quarter.

Jamaica
started the second stanza with a lot more confidence and quickly took
control of the match through their goal shooter and player of the match,
Romelda Aiken, who shot 15 goals from 18 attempts in the second quarter
as they went in with a 34-20 lead at half-time.

Aiken,
who was taken out of the game at the end of the third quarter, finished
with 40 goals from 49 attempts, with Jamaica leading 50-33.

Aiken
received good support from Jhaniele Fowler, who replaced her at the
start of the fourth period to score 21 goals from 24 tries; and Ann-Kay
Griffith, who sank 11 goals from 15 attempts.

The
Jamaicans played their second match in the wee hours of this morning
(2:30 a.m.) against Botswana, and Pitterson had promised to make several
changes to her starting line-up to preserve her squad for the vital
confrontations that lie ahead.

"The
aim is to ensure that everybody is healthy when it comes down to the
play-offs, and if it is that we have to utilise that bench, then so be
it," said Pitterson. "They are a group that is very versatile, and any
seven which go on the court, we should get a good result."

She
added: "We want to make sure that they are not burnt out when it comes
to the 'nitty gritty'. We had a little problem at the start of the game,
but we managed to sort it out. We have no problems going to the bench. I
think the bench is very capable of turning the game around, and the
good thing is that they did that."

Tomorrow's match

4:45 a.m. - Jamaica vs Singapore