JAMAICA’S Sunshine Girls continued their build-up to the Netball World Cup with a 72-28 demolition of the Berger Elite All-star team in game one of their two-match practice encounters at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Friday evening.

The Sunshine Girls asserted their dominance from the start and raced to a 23-8 lead at the end of the first quarter after forcing their opponents into numerous turnovers.

The second quarter was more of the same with both teams consistently turning over possession. The Elite All-star team was resolute and enjoyed their closest scoring run of the game, shooting seven goals to the Sunshine Girls’ 12, but they were still left with a 20-goal deficit at the half-time break with the score at 35-15.

And the Elite All-stars came out strongly and kept the Sunshine Girls at bay early in the third quarter, shooting three unanswered goals. However, they failed to maintain their composure and made a number of unforced errors and turnovers in mid-court.

Nicole Dixon and Sasher-Gaye Henry, who were introduced in mid-court for the Sunshine Girls, upped the tempo as they went on a 13-3 run to end the quarter 48-21.

The final quarter was a blowout for the Sunshine Girls who were solid in defence, while forcing the turnovers and capitalising on each goal opportunity. The winners rarely placed a foot wrong, and went on to outscore their opponents 24-7 to come away with an emphatic 44-goal victory.

Jhaniele Fowler-Reid led the way for the Sunshine Girls with 53 goals from 67 attempts, while goal-attack Shanice Beckford had an off day scoring eight from 12, with her replacement Anna-Kay Griffiths scoring a perfect 11 points.

Meanwhile, shooter Jodi-Ann Ffrench-Kentish led the All-stars with 12 goals from 15 attempts, followed by reserved Sunshine Girl Shantal Slater, who scored eight from nine attempts. Meleshia Josephs gave support with six from eight and Crystal Grant had two from four attempts.

Despite the margin of victory, coach Minneth Reynolds told the Jamaica Observer that the team which will be joined by ace-shooter Romelda Aiken this week is still a work in progress.

“I think that the ladies played well. I must say congrats to the All-star; they started very well and they had us going, but our fitness was able to pull us through,” she explained.

Reynolds pointed out that the chemistry between the players has improved gradually, as they seek to find the right combination of players ahead of the Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia, next month.

“It has been going quite well because we used two sets of players for both halves and it has paid dividends for us. That is what we are looking for going into the World Cup…. we don’t want to have just seven players on court and burning them out,” Reynolds noted.

“So this game is really to give us a feedback to see what it is we need to work on going into the World Cup, and as our training progresses we will gel much better and the chemistry will be there,” she assured.

The second game was slated for last evening.