19 May 2024

UB Crystals, Thamaga Jaspers, Prisons and Vipers women teams have finished bottom four in the Lucara Botswana Netball League Southern zone, disqualifying for the top eight finals billed for Orapa.

The P300 000 Lucara Botswana sponsored netball league concluded over the weekend and the top four women’s teams and top four men’s from the Southern and Northern zones respectively qualified for the top eight tournament to be played in Orapa, to determine overall winners of the league.

In their Saturday encounters at Sir Seretse Khama Barracks  netball courts in Mogoditshane, the bottom four teams faced each other where in the first match of the weekend fixtures UB Crystals defeated Jaspers 57-21, followed by Vipers beating Prisons 37-28.

In a post-match interview, UB Crystals coach, Abednico Chetelo said his team was dominated by young players still learning the game.

However, he said there was a great improvement as they managed to defeat one of the teams they had lost to in the first round of the season.

Chetelo said despite missing other key players, the majority of which were students preparing for examinations, the team played well.

He said the team did not perform exceptionally well throughout the entire season therefore, finishing in the bottom four.

Chetelo said the team lacked experience hence relied on young players who were not able to cope with the season’s tempo.

“The overall impression of the season is that the team did its best, only handicapped by lack of experience,” he said and further noted another challenge was instances where officials could not honour matches therefore, their efforts of preparing for matches went to waste while in some instances some officials were not convincingly competent.

Thamaga Jaspers coach, Wame Legakwa said the game was difficult for his team.

“I think I had lost it on the shooting side because I did not have the regular quality shooters.

The ball could come into the circle but the actual accuracy shooting was a let-down, most of the balls that the shooters attempted either bounced off the goal mouth or just missed,” he said.

Legakwa said his team was playing against a team which its attack was led by an experienced and former national team player, Portia Rasekhumba, who was effective and communicating with fellow team mates, drilling them to make the right decisions.

He said his team could not match UB Crystals tactics and pace of the match more so that the team was guided by the experienced Rasekhumba.

Legakwa said his players were making unforced errors in mid court, which included a lot of foot fouls, passing the ball to the opponents and inaccurate passes which led to them being punished by the opponent scoring goals.

He said their biggest challenge was that his players were not based in one location, six commuted from Lobatse, two were based in Mochudi and others in Gaborone making it difficult for the team to train together.

Coach Legakwa also added that he was equally challenged as he was not based in Gaborone, therefore could not train with the team on a daily basis.

Onalethata Maabong of Vipers revealed that despite playing a team that dominated in terms of physical strength, his young players worked as a team.

Maabong said his team managed to come from behind and overcome Prisons because of working together and fully applying his tactics.

He said despite finishing in the bottom four, the players fought during the entire season but their efforts were not enough to topple the giants of the game.

He said netball teams was crippled by financial constraints and working with almost zero budgets to cater for players’ meals and travel expenses through the season.

However, he was hopeful that with the necessary support netball was bound to grow, as the players and administrators were determined to keep the sport relevant.

Reginald Pitso of Prisons said the team made an effort to improve their attack by fielding two tall shooters as the game progressed.

However, Pitso said despite the changes, the players failed to establish a winning combination as they had a challenge of converting.

He said Vipers defence were experienced, therefore difficult to penetrate their defence.

Pitso despite working hard and at one point levelling the score with Vipers in the third quarter, somehow his midfield collapse allowing the opponent to penetrate his defence and converting more goals. ENDS