A superlative display of shooting from new acquisition Laurel Browne carried Pine Hill St Barnabas into the final of the Barbados Netball Association’s senior knockout championship with a heart-stopping 40-39 victory over the 2012 double crown champions C.O.
Williams Rangers at the Netball Stadium on Wednesday night. National player Browne, a former Phoenix Gems player, had to contend with the elevation and height of another Barbados six-footer, Rhe-Ann Niles, to score all but four of her team’s goals from 39 attempts.
None of Browne’s goals was as important as the final one which gave her new team the ticket to the final. The young talent of Shaniqua Thomas at goal attack complemented Browne with four goals from seven attempts.
St Barnabas will meet Spooners Hill, who celebrated on the sidelines in anticipation of the final on April 20 when the two will also battle in the Intermediate 3 and 4 final.
In addition, Rangers will meet St Barnabas in the junior final and Newbury will battle Fusion in the Intermediate 5 and 6 final. Rangers lost the plot in the final quarter after holding slight advantages of 22-18 and 31-27 in the second and third quarters following a 10-10 deadlock at the end of the opening quarter.
Veteran Olivia Walcott was solid in sinking 36 of 39 while goal attack Shakeema Rock struck 12 of 19 spiced with a number of long-range bombs.
Rangers started with Walcott (goal shoot), Rock (goal attack), Niles (goal keeper), Tyneisha Rowe (wing attack), Sabreena Smith (centre), Ronda Harris (wing defence) and Janelle Sealy (goal defence). Except for some brief runs by Alanna King, Kathy-Ann Agard and Natasha Birkett-Sealy, the starting six played most of the game.
St Barnabas also relied on their starters of Browne (goal shoot), Thomas (goal attack), Vanessa Bobb (wing attack), Samantha Browne (centre) veteran Jackie McConney (wing defence), Jeneice Clarke (goal defence) and the powerful Shonette Bruce (goalkeeper).
With Bobb, McConney, Clarke and Samantha Browne being equally matched in speed and craft in the mid-court by Rowe, Harris and Smith who played for NCC last year, the power, height and elevation of Bruce and Niles at opposite posts kept the game from being dominated by the shooters.
A collision by Bruce and Samantha Browne almost scuttled St Barnabas’ hopes at 15-18, as she suffered damaged to her gums and had to be replaced by Ashley Marshall at wing defence with Clarke moving to centre.
Samantha Browne returned in the final quarter which saw St Barnabas moving from 27-31 to 30-31 before Rangers could start scoring again. However, Laurel Browne would later push the score to 35-36, and a miss by Walcott at the other end allowed Laurel to tie the scores at 36.
The massive crowd saw some tense moments with long-range bombs from Rock carrying Rangers to 39-37 with minutes on the clock. A steal by Marshall at 38-39 saw Laurel Browne tying the game while a tremendous leap and counter steal by Niles put Rangers in position to take back the advantage.
However, a replay by Rock who dropped the ball in her half and then picked it back up saw Rangers losing the gift. With the time keeper counting down the seconds, the experienced McConney and protege Thomas froze the ball outside the shooting circle before passing to Laurel Browne who sank the winner and triggered celebrations by St Barnabas and their supporters in the stands.
