Russell guides T&T netball men to 5 straight wins

Keon Russell lifted T&T to its fifth consecutive win at the Americas Netball Men’s Championships in St Kitts and Nevis on Monday (September 16) night.

And for that the shooter was named the “Most Valuable Player” for the team after scoring 18 goals from 29 attempts to guide the national men’s team to a 47-25 victory over Grenada at the Pam Tyson Netball Complex in St Kitts. The eight-team tournament is being played at two venues, the other is the Cicely Grell Hull Dora Stevens Complex in Nevis.

Russell opened as the goal-shooter and combined with captain goal-attack Steve Mc Sween to give T&T an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second period, Russell was switched to the goal-attack position and coach Pietra Gay brought in Kerry McMillan as goal-shooter.

McMillan spent most of the quarter feeding his goal-attack as they combined to take T&T to a double-digit lead at the half, 24-13 while goal-keeper Daniel Hagley and goal-defence Kevin Edwards limited the Grenadians tries at goal. They had great support from wing-defence Shaquille Lewis in the first quarter, who was then replaced by Christian Arthur for the next two periods before he was put in the goal-defence position.

In the second half, the local team continued to dominate on both offence and defence. Russell, still in the goal-attack bib, then partnered with goal-shooter Dextroy Manswell who continued to shoot with great accuracy throughout the Championship, hitting eight from 10 (80 per cent) to kept T&T ahead at the close of the third quarter.

Coach Gay brought back in her opening shooting pair, Russell and Mc Sween and they were unstoppable on the offence while defenders Hagley and Arthur were impenetrable down the other end.

The shooting duo went on to score 15 goals in the final period while the defenders restricted Grenada to five as the undefeated T&T eased to the 22-goal win to add to their four other victories against the host team (56-27), USA (48-14), St Vincent and the Grenadines (54-37) and Antigua and Barbuda (87-16).

T&T was scheduled to face fellow unbeaten team Jamaica Tuesday (September 17) evening before its final match of the round-robin competition against England Wednesday (September 18) at 4.30 pm.

Results

T&T 47 (Keon Russell 18/29, Steve McSween 21/25, Dextroy Manswell 8/10) vs Grenada 25 (S Baptiste 21/30, K Hinds 4/10, L Alexander 0/4). Quarter scores: 1st 11-8, 2nd 24-13, 3rd 32-20 (All in favour of T&T). MVP – Keon Russell (Goal-shooter/goal attack)

St Vincent and the Grenadines 75 vs USA 22

St Kitts and Nevis 14 vs England 70

Antigua and Barbiuda 14 vs Jamaica 83

Wednesday’s matches

Court 1: T&T vs England, 4.30 pm; Jamaica vs SVG, 6.30 pm

Court 2: ATG vs USA, 4.40 pm; Grenada vs SKN, 6.40 pm

Closing and presentations, 8.15 pm.

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