Jamaica 53
Silver Ferns 50
The Silver Ferns will head into their summer break with plenty to think about after stumbling at the final hurdle of their long journey home.
A tired-looking New Zealand outfit suffered a historic 53-50 loss to Jamaica in Kingston yesterday - just their second-ever defeat at the hands of the
Sunshine Girls.
After a slow start the plucky Jamaican side, who have improved remarkably over the past 12 months, ambushed the Ferns in the second quarter to take a handy lead at halftime. Led by inspirational play-maker Simone Forbes and a ferocious defensive effort, Jamaica outscored the visitors 13-5 in the second spell, which saw the Ferns trail 27-21 at halftime.
New Zealand coach Ruth Aitken said her attack end appeared to lose confidence in one another in the second quarter, which was likely due to the change in the midcourt line-up. Liana Barrett-Chase started at wing attack for the first time since injury forced her out of the Australian series, which saw Temepara George moving back to centre, and Laura Langman start at wing defence.
While the attack end started strongly, they lost their way in the second period when Jamaica ramped up the defensive intensity.
"I don't think our links through court to our shooting circle were there, it's probably been a strength of ours but today the communication lines just weren't quite there. But that was also the pressure that Jamaica put us under," said Aitken.
The Silver Ferns managed to claw their way back into the match on a couple of occasions over the second half, but lacked the execution at crucial stages to threaten Jamaica's lead.
Silver Ferns defender Joline Henry said with the clever Jamaican attack line feeding giant shooter Romelda Aiken well, her side struggled to create turnover ball and New Zealand didn't have the patience and disciplined on attack to capitalise on what little turnover ball they did effect. After nearly a month on the road the fatigue was certainly evident in the Ferns performance yesterday.
Even New Zealand sharpshooter Irene van Dyk had a spell on the bench, replaced in the final quarter by rookie Paula Griffin after being kept very quiet by the Jamaican defence in the middle two periods. But Henry was reluctant to blame her side's heavy schedule over the past three months for their lacklustre performance.
"At the end of the day we're all fit enough to play a 60-minute match and we should have been on top of things today," she said. The Ferns are due back in Auckland on Sunday morning.