Barbados are the champions of the Senior International Festival of Netball in Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, Barbados defeated Northern Ireland 47-38 at the Antrim Forum to remain unbeaten in the inaugural quadrangular tournament.
Botswana took the bronze medal after beating St Lucia 35-28.
But this was not like Saturday’s match where Barbados raced to a 7-0 lead and dominated virtually every phase of play.
The hosts started with a different attack and were leading 7-4 after Barbados kept turning over their centre pass.
But a 7-1 run turned that into an 11-8 lead which the Bajan lasses never relinquished.
Barbados effectively wrapped up the game behind a solid third-quarter performance in which they outscored Northern Ireland 15-8 to take a decisive 37-26 lead. That followed another poor second quarter where they were outscored 8-7.
Barbados’ game seemed to stutter after captain Latonia Blackman went down and had to be replaced by Sabreena Smith. Instead of working the ball in, a few attempts were made to force it in to goal shooter Shonica Wharton, but goalkeeper Nordia Masters tipped them each time for the interception.
However, a 6-1 run at the end of the second and into the third (Blackman returned and Sabreena Smith replaced a lacklustre Damisha Croney who was celebrating her 22nd birthday), saw Barbados going on a six-goal run to lead 28-18.
The combination of shooters Wharton and Nikita Piggott who played together for the full match, as well as the defensive trio of Kizzy Marville, Rhe-ann Niles and Shonette Bruce seemed to settle and the game opened up.
To their credit, Northern Ireland gave a good fight. Goal shooter Lisa Summerville kept them in the match as she worked hard to out-hustle Bruce and Niles.
After Barbados had opened their largest lead of 14 (41-27) on another six-goal run, Northern Ireland began to claw their way back in the fourth quarter.
Barbados again became careless with the centre pass and the lead was trimmed to seven (43-36) before they sank three to get some breathing room and secure the win, despite being outscored 10-12. (SAT)
Summary
First-place match: Barbados 47, Northern Ireland 38
Third-place match: Botswana 35, St Lucia 28
Preliminary matches: Barbados 51, St Lucia 33
Northern Ireland 54, Botswana 23
Barbados 52, Botswana 31
Northern Ireland 61, St Lucia 36
Barbados 62, Northern Ireland 31
Botswana 34, St Lucia 33
Player Rankings (out of 10)
Shonica Wharton 7.5
Nikita Piggott 8
Laurel Browne 6.5
Sheniqua Thomas 6
Damisha Croney 6
Samantha Browne 6.5
Sabreena Smith 6
Latonia Blackman 8
Kizzy Marville 7
Jeneice Clarke 6
Rhe-ann Niles 8
Shonette Bruce 7.5
