Gems bounce back against Namibia

ZIMBABWE senior netball team coach Lloyd Makunde wants to see his team improve on its last week’s poor performance against Malawi when the two teams collide in a different competition today.

The Gems were clobbered 56-38 in their last meeting at the Pent Series and they clash today in the Africa Netball Cup, with both teams seeking a win.

Makunde wants to see an improvement if his team is to stand a better chance of winning against Malawi.

“We need to make sure that our turnovers are converted into goals, just that,” said Makunde.

Zimbabwe bounced back to winning ways yesterday with a hard fought 50-49 triumph over Namibia in a follow-up to the heavy 78-27 defeat to South Africa on Tuesday.

Africa Netball Cup got underway on Tuesday and runs until November 16.

In yesterday’s match, Namibia managed to dominate from the first quarter up to the third but the Gems managed to take the initiative in the decisive final part.

The first three quarters ended in favour of Namibia with the first quarter finishing at 18-13, second quarter 29-25 and third quarter 40-37.

It was until the last quarter where Gems took the lead when they managed to make use of the turnovers that came their way. However, although the Namibians kept the Gems on their toes in the last quarter as they kept on defending hard, the Gems managed to wrest the lead and defended it until the final whistle.

Makunde said he kept pushing his players even when they were down.

“We had to keep on encouraging them, I had faith,” said Makunde.

“I just told them to make sure that our centre passes are turned into goals and then we have to force turnovers and shoot them and that’s exactly what they did.”

Zimbabwe will face Malawi tomorrow in their third match at 3pm.

It is likely going to be a tough battle for the Gems, having lost to the same team by 56-38 at the Pent Series last week.