Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls suffered a 21-point defeat against hosts England in the first game of their three-match series at the AO Arena in Manchester on Wednesday.
The Sunshine Girls, who won silver at the Commonwealth Games last year in Birmingham, took an early six-goal lead after the first quarter but found England too good from the second half and went down 73-52.
England started their comeback from the second quarter by trimming the deficit to three going into the half-time break. They eventually got on top for the first time in the third period to lead 49-47. Jamaica won the first quarter 19-13 and held a 34-31 lead at the end of the second quarter.
In the final 15 minutes, the Sunshine Girls were restricted to a meagre five goals while England scored 24 to dismantle the Commonwealth Games silver medallists for a fabulous victory.
Goal-shooter and captain, Jhaniele Fowler had 49 goals from 51 attempts for Jamaica while Shanice Beckford had 4 from 7.
Jo Harten led England with 37 from 39 while Helen Housby supported well with 30 from 31 and, Olivia Tchine had 6 from 6.
The teams travel down south to the Copper Box Arena in London for back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday.
The series forms part of the teams preparations for July’s World Cup in South Africa.
