BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Oct 22, CMC – The Barbados Gems and Trinidad and Tobago’s Calypso Gems continued their unbeaten run in the Americas Netball World Cup Qualifiers with contrasting victories at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex on Tuesday.
While the Gems needed a spectacular performance in the fourth quarter to edge past Saint Lucia 42-40 and record their second successive win, T&T strolled past St Vincent and the Grenadines 73-41 to also make it two wins out of two.
Saint Lucia, who defeated Barbados for the bronze medal at this year’s Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, looked well on their way to another victory over the Gems after entering the final quarter with a comfortable 35-27 lead.
But buoyed by a vociferous home crowd, the Gems staged a comeback for the ages, outscoring their opponents 15-5, to exact revenge and keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.
For Barbados, Faye Agard scored 15 of her 18 attempts, while Kadeen Corbin converted nine of 12, while Naija Ferdinand scored a game-high 20 of 22 attempts for Saint Lucia, who slumped to their second defeat of the tournament.
Meanwhile, CAC champions T&T made light work of St Vincent and the Grenadines in a contest that they controlled from start to finish.
The Calypso Girls led 17-9 after the first quarter and extended that advantage to 36-17 by the half.
By the end of the third quarter, they were comfortably ahead 56-29 before eventually going on to win by a mammoth 32-goal margin.
Samantha Wallace-Joseph scored 33 of her 35 attempts, Kalifa McCollin made 20 of 23 shots and Maikea Bramble converted all 17 of her attempts.
For St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mary-Ann Frederick scored 34 of 40 attempts.
In other results, the USA downed Grenada 61-42, while Canada thumped the British Virgin Islands 67-20.
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