Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE national netball team secured a seventh place finish at the 13th Asian Netball Championships after defeating Maldives 53-41 on Sunday.
The latter has the better start and led by as many as five points and closed out the opening up 14-9 at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in India.
The Royal Bees worked their way back and closed the gap to within a point at 24-23 at halftime.
The match was tied at 27-27 after basket by Nur Hafizah Hj Abdul Sidek four minutes after the interval.
Brunei went in front for the first time with the scoreboard reading 30-29 on the 7:20 mark.
They kept the momentum for six unanswered points before Maldives connected on a basket with four minutes left in the third.
The Sultanate extended their advantage to double digits and stayed in front 42-32 going into the final stanza.
Brunei led by many as 12 points before their opponents trimmed it to eight.
However, with good ball management they ensured to conclude their campaign with a victory for a 4-4 win-loss record.
National coach Thilaka Jinadasa, who returned to the helm five months ago, is proud of her charges' showing at the Oct 18-27 tournament.
"It was good that we finished in seventh place this time since it was only five months of preparations after I came back," said Jinadasa in an interview with BruSports News.
"I had to start from scratch since players were not regularly training at that time.
"This is a good start for the next SEA Games, and now we know what needs to be done to play better, and definitely, we have to search for some players with height," she added.
"We will also need more attendees for training that will help in selection for better and talented players.
"Most importantly, we have to play more competitions, either invite teams to Brunei or go out to play," continued the Sri Lankan.
"It was very visible during games that players lack experience during crucial times," she concluded.
