JAMAICA has clean swept the Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series after beating South Africa 58-47 in the final match of the series.

The defensive work from the Jamaicans was the backbone of them getting the win, with skipper Shamera Sterling-Humphrey putting in a captain’s performance.

Jamaica’s stellar defensive end was on show again early. An intercept from a flying Latanya Wilson helped Jamaica record the first break of centre for the match, and Jamaica went to put five unanswered goals on the board before the South Africans put their first on the board.

Jamaica’s defence has a reputation for a reason, and it was on full display early in the match as not only was Wilson, Sterling-Humphrey and Jodi-Ann Ward racking up the intercepts with stellar precision, but the Jamaicans were also keeping the defensive pressure high across the court, resulting in held balls being called in their favour.

South Africa eventually found a bit of rhythm after rejigging its attack a couple of times, but by the time they finally did, the deficit was already heading towards double digits. The SPAR Proteas finally found a shooting combination that worked in Elmere van der Berg and Kamogelo Maseko, and the pair started to get South Africa scoring on a more regular basis.

The margin was still five in Jamaica’s favour at the first break, but considering it had been at about 10 goals in the home side’s favour earlier in the quarter, things were looking up for the visitors.

Although the second quarter initially felt pretty even, Jamaica was the eventually able to extend its lead further out after making capitalising better on intercept opportunities than the South Africans were. One other thing that was really helping the Jamaicans was that they were really using Shimona Jok’s height and natural willingness to reach to their advantage, and there was not much Sanmarie Visser or Jamie Van Wyk could do.

The Jamaicans managed to double their quarter time lead in the second term, and as such took a 10 goal lead into the main break.

South Africa was the side to quickly jump out of the blocks after half time, shooting four of the first five goals of the quarter.

However momentum did not last too long for the South Africans as Jamaica quickly re-asserted its dominance on proceedings.

There was one area of the game that continued to negatively affect the visitors, but it was also something kind of out of their control. Jok is 10cm or more taller than any of the South African defenders, so was able to just reach over the top of them to get the ball, and with her strength was able to reel the ball in and legally move her opponents out of the way.

Although the South Africans ultimately only lost the third term by four goals, the margin was still 14 goals at the final change.

Another thing that the South Africans kept doing in attack was that they kept feeding their shooters via aerial passes, which Sterling-Humphrey was just pouncing on and intercepting with ease.

Although the South Africans did end up winning the last quarter, it was only by three goals so was nowhere near enough to eat into the deficit and take the win.

JAMAICA                      14 | 15 | 16 | 13 (58)
SOUTH AFRICA              9 | 10 | 12 | 16 (47)

STARTING SEVENS

Jamaica

GS: Shimona Jok
GA: Rhea Dixon
WA: Brie Grierson
C: Adean Thomas
WD: Jodi-Ann Ward
GD: Latanya Wilson
GK: Shamera Sterling-Humphrey

South Africa

GS: Ine-Mari Venter
GA: Nichole Breedt
WA: Khanyisa Chawane
C: Refiloe Nketsa
WD: Jeante Strydom
GD: Jamie Van Wyk
GK: Sanmarie Visser