Namibia stage comeback to beat Singapore in M1 Nations Cup final
| SINGAPORE | NAMIBIA |
| 42 | 49 |
The Singapore netballers' brave run in the M1 Nations Cup ended in a 49-42 final defeat by Namibia at the OCBC Arena on Saturday (Oct 26).
Namibia, who are ranked world No. 33, led the 28th-ranked Singapore 11-10 after the first quarter.
Backed by a vociferous home crowd, the Republic came roaring back to take the second quarter 25-20, with Singapore captain Charmaine Soh leading the scoring.
Namibia were not about to give up without a fight, though. They regained the initiative with direct lobs to their 1.93m goal shooter Jaumbuaije Zauana, who was in red-hot form, converting 96 per cent of her shooting opportunities.
The African side drew 33-33 in the third quarter, and pulled away to seal victory in the final period.
Despite the defeat, Singapore coach Natalie Milicich was heartened by what she saw from her charges throughout the week-long tournament.
She said: "I think that the final is a hard stage. So I think that we’ve learnt a lot from our match today and I’m just really proud that we got to the finals.
"Just those little connections that we were missing, like having lost (wing attack) Kimberly (Lim) with a very serious injury, so we knew it was going to take us a bit of time to connect with one another but I’m very proud of what we’ve done out there."
Meanwhile, the Cook Islands finished third after defeating Botswana 49-46, while Ireland bagged their first win of the tournament, beating Papua New Guinea 47-37 to finish fifth.
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