Namibia wins opening match at Netball Africa World Cup qualifiers

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The national senior women’s netball team, the Debmarine Desert Jewels, won their opening match of the Africa Netball World Cup qualifiers after beating Tanzania 54-40 on Sunday afternoon.

The Africa Netball World Cup qualifiers for the Cape Town 2023 Netball World Cup, are underway at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) Rembrandt Hall, where nine teams are competing from 21 to 27 August 2022.

In their opening match of pool A, the Namibian team started the game on a positive note as they took the lead in the opening minutes of the first quarter.

The Debmarine Desert Jewels had a seven points lead in the opening three minutes of the match but Tanzania cut it down to four points as the quarter progressed, with the Namibian team failing to capitalise on their turnover opportunities.

With the quarter coming to an end, the Namibian team once again regrouped to put more points on the scoreboard to end the quarter with a five points lead of 16-11.

The second quarter saw Namibia starting slow and missing scoring chances, which brought Tanzania back into the game once more as they trailed Namibia by three points halfway into the second quarter.

The Namibian girls then composed themselves and made use of all their turnover goals to lead that quarter 30-21 at halftime.

The start of the third quarter belonged to Tanzania, who were a more dominant outfit in the opening three minutes of that quarter but Namibia capitalised on their handling errors to once again restore their lead at the end of the quarter with a 42-33 score line as both teams just scored 12 points in this quarter.

The final quarter of the match saw the Namibian team digging deeper into their arsenals to write off a determined Tanzania who want to level the score as they mounted more pressure on their opponents but only scored seven points compared to Namibia’s 12 as the match ended with a 54-40 score.

In an interview with the media after the match, Namibia’s team coach, Mary Waya, said she was happy with the results.

“I think being picked up late from the hotel played a role in how the team prepared for the game, but I am happy that we managed to score points that won us the match today,” she said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency