KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls won back-to-back silver medals after being beaten 56-48 in the final of the Commonwealth Games netball competition by world number two-ranked New Zealand Silver Ferns at the Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday.

It was Jamaica’s second loss to the Silver Ferns, who had prevailed 53-48 in their first-round Pool B contest a week earlier.

It was Jamaica’s fifth medal in netball at the Commonwealth Games as the country finished with 19 medals, the other 18 coming in track and field that ended on Saturday.

In the bronze medal game that preceded the final, four-time champions Australia beat England 68-50, the first time they were not contesting the gold medal game in the history of the Games.

Jamaica started slowly, and despite tying up the scores twice in the third quarter, New Zealand were in control, led by a magnificent shooting performance from Goal Shooter Grace Nweke, who had 48 goals from 54 attempts and scored 23 of their first 25 goals.

New Zealand led by three goals after the first quarter (16-13) and held on to the margin (28-25) at half-time before increasing their margin to five goals (41-36) at the end of the third quarter and led by as many as 10 goals in the fourth quarter.

Romelda Aiken-George, who was always defended by two players every time she got the ball, led Jamaica with 32 goals from 36 attempts, while Shanice Beckford scored 16 goals from 18 tries.

–Paul A Reid