Day Three of the M1 Nations Cup 2019 kicked-off with Botswana walking away victorious, defeating Papua New Guinea 36-58, marking their second consecutive win at the tournament.

Botswana was off to a robust start scoring 6 points in the first 5 minutes, with a fierce battle beginning between Botswana’s Ntebogang Motlakaloso (GS) and Papua New Guinea’s Japheth Tulapi (GK),  ending the first quarter with Botswana leading 8-16. The next two quarters showed fierce competition across the court, with Papua New Guinea challenging for much needed possession. Botswana, taking feedback from their coach yesterday, started to dictate the match and showed their ‘wildness’ in attack heading into the final quarter commanding a 25-46 lead.  

The Pepe’s threw one last roll of the dice and started the final quarter vigorously, creating more opportunities and maintaining consistency in their attacking game, scoring points early on. However, the African side continued to be clinical in the final third, pulling away and securing a comfortable win with 58 points to Papua New Guinea 36.

Co-Captain of Papua New Guinea, Courtney Abel “I am just really shocked we came firing in the last quarters, I don’t know where that came from but I am really proud as we had a few of our younger players come on and they just really stepped up and performed so I am just really proud of every game whether we win or lose.”   Coach of Botswana, Sithulile Mlotshwa “The game plan was to go in hard on Papua New Guinea. By doing so, it would lead us to the final medal games. I wanted some of our players to rest since I have less players, so what I did was give them time to play two quarters then afterwards rest. The defence today also played very well. The team managed to take back many rebounds, even though we missed one or two plays. They played very well.”

 
The match between Namibia and Cook Islands was the second match of Day Three, with Namibia beating Cook Islands 61-47 in an intense and aggressive encounter. This marks Namibia’s second consecutive win of the tournament and the Islanders’ first loss.
   
Namibia’s wingers Venyekerera Maharere (WD) and Leandri Van Der Walt (WA) were the key difference in the middle of the court providing crucial width to supply clear, direct and powerful passes to their shooters and in turn, dominating the match. The Islanders, however were not one to give up and for the next two quarters (2nd & 3rd) they responded, heading into the final quarter chasing a 7-point deficit (45-38). The final 15 minutes saw competitive offenses from both teams, and Cook Islands showed their determination in responding to Namibia’s endless threat in the circle. However, the point difference in the end was too large and after adding the necessary force, Namibia secured a well-deserved victory. 

Coach of Namibia, Julene Meyer “It was physically a very hard game. We’re not used to the style of play that Cook Islands play so we really had to do our homework to find techniques that we could use against them. I’m really happy with the way the players are gaining momentum, I’m happy with the execution. We still have a few areas that we need to improve on, but overall, I’m happy with the performance. I think the players are still slow to recognize the situation that they’re in so when they entered into the second quarter then they start to get better sooner, start adapting faster and therefore execute what we’re supposed to be doing better. Overall, we still need to be quicker and we can still do more. I am hoping that before Saturday, we’ll hit the full gears.”
 
Coach of Cook Islands, Anna Andrews-Tasola “It’s no surprise at all that they were extremely competitive. We’re grateful to be able to play against that style. It’s a very exciting competition, so it’s a very good thing for Singapore netball as a whole for this competition. We need to get back to the drawing board tonight and see what happens tomorrow.”

The action-packed final match for Day Three saw Singapore play against Ireland, beating them 51-35 and marking Singapore’s first win in the M1 Nations Cup 2019.

With both teams aiming for a positive response from their losses yesterday, the first quarter started with end to end action. Jan Hynes (GS) making her 100th International cap for Ireland this evening opened the scoring with Singapore responding soon after to head into the first break leading 13-5.The next two quarters (2nd & 3rd) saw Singapore upping the pace with faster, harder throws in an attempt to leave Ireland in the lurch and chasing the game into the final quarter. With home crowd support, Singapore started to overpower the Irish in the final 10 minutes of the match and their interceptions, fast throws and sly bounce passes paid off as they won 51-35 – Singapore’s first win of the tournament.

Coach of Singapore, Natalie Milicich “Our performance to be fair was not as good as our first two matches but we will take the win and I think after taking this win we will be able to have that winning feeling brought into tomorrow’s match which will be a really important one for us. I trust every single one of our players and today really shows that we have that depth in the squad. 
We need to have an honest discussion of our performance and make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes we did for today. I’m sure they will come out strong, fighting for another win. We need to make sure that we stick to the game plan as well because we did stray away a bit today.”

Coach of Ireland, Joan Young “It’s always a great game against Singapore. We were struggling at the beginning because a lot of balls went astray and there was a lot of pressure from Singapore in that position. I think the girls were very focused. I just think that the passing was just not as accurate as it could have been so we made too many errors, and of course Singapore was able to shoot and score due to our mistakes. So yes, mainly down to on-court errors. We’ll sit down, analyse and see what we can train and what we can change.”