Namibia goes down in third match of Netball World Cup qualifiers

WINDHOEK, 16 AUG  – Namibia’s chance of qualifying for the 2019 Netball World Cup is slipping through her fingers after suffering a second defeat at the African Women’s Netball Championship underway in Lusaka, Zambia.
Namibia’s Desert Jewels lost to Zimbabwe 44-61 on Thursday in their third game of the tournament. They also lost to Uganda (47-72) in their opening match on Tuesday but won their second match against Kenya (54-34) on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Namibia started the game well and led the opening five minutes of the match, but sloppy mistakes gave away their lead and possession as their opponents won the first quarter 10-12.
In the second quarter, Namibia lost goalkeeper Cherlyn Muesee to an injury that seemingly got worse since she first injured herself against Kenya.
This gave the Zimbabweans room to extend their lead to five points in that quarter which eventually ended 25-30.
Namibia came back in the game stronger in the third quarter, reducing the score margin to three points but interception mistakes allowed their opponents to once more extend their lead with six points for a 36-42 scoreline.
In the last quarter of the match, the Namibian team only managed to score eight points, while their opponents added 19 points to their tally for a final score of 44-61.
Six countries – Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Uganda and Kenya – are battling it out for ranking points as well as a place at next year’s World Cup.
Malawi, who already qualified for the World Cup, are competing at the event for match fitness as well as ranking points.
The Netball Association of Zambia is hosting the championship in Lusaka from 13 to 18 August 2018.
Namibia’s next match in the competition will be against Malawi on Friday afternoon at 12h00 local time.

NAMPA