Joelisa Coop­er flour­ished in Fire Ser­vice’s shoot­ing end to see the Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion de­fend­ing cham­pi­on vic­to­ri­ous in their open­er in the Courts All Sec­tors Net­ball League.

Coop­er, the goal-shoot­er, starred with 46 goals from 50 at­tempts in Fire’s 52-33 win over De­fence Force at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Tacarigua on Sat­ur­day.

The fire­women were flu­id in at­tack with their goal-shoot­er hold­ing her space well, and goal-at­tack Onel­la Jack-Hill (6/11) work­ing the area around her, ef­fi­cient­ly.

Down the oth­er end, open­ing shoot­ers for De­fence Force, goal-shoot­er Jody Sprott (13/15) and goal-at­tack Kim­marie James-Bernard (10/14) matched them ef­fec­tive­ly as they end­ed the first quar­ter tied 9-9.

How­ev­er in the sec­ond quar­ter, Fire start­ed to dom­i­nate in cen­tre court claim­ing turnovers and work­ing the ball down the court with pre­ci­sion and speed, to take the lead. The army/coast­guard com­bi­na­tion team fought back but was un­able to re­duce Fire’s four-goal ad­van­tage. At half-time, the score was De­fence Force 17 - 21 Fire.

The fire­women start­ed the sec­ond half well as they were putting im­mense pres­sure on each De­fense Force cen­tre pass and ex­tend­ed their lead. By the end of the third quar­ter, Fire had outscored its op­po­nent, 15-7, to go in­to the fi­nal ses­sion up, 36-24.

It was all still all Fire in the fourth pe­ri­od as De­fence Force looked to their bench to try and shift the mo­men­tum, re­plac­ing Sprott with Ali­cia Liv­er­pool as the goal-shoot­er. She added 10 of 13 but De­fence Force was held to nine while Fire added 16 to seal the 19-goal vic­to­ry.

In the oth­er match in the di­vi­sion, the Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT) made light work of Po­lice, dom­i­nat­ing the match-up to take the 43-20 win.

Goal-at­tack Kathy-Ann Gra­ham, a na­tion­al youth play­er, scored the bulk of the goals with 20 off 28 while her fel­low na­tion­al team­mate Shaniya Mor­gan con­nect­ed 12 off 21.

For­mer na­tion­al cap­tain Kali­fa Mc­Collin-Lopez al­so boost­ed the youth T&T play­ers in the cir­cle with 11 off 15 in the one-sided af­fair, which UTT led from the first pass, hold­ing the ad­van­tage at the end of each quar­ter, 10-4 in the first, 20-12 at the half and 33-15 in the third.

Goal-shoot­er Ani­ka La Roche-Brice was best for Po­lice with 11 goals from 21 tries.

Re­sults

Pre­mier­ship Di­vi­sion

De­fence Force 33 (Jody Sprott 13/15, Kim­marie James-Bernard 10/14, Ali­cia Liv­er­pool 10/13) vs Fire 52 (Joelisa Coop­er 46/50, Onel­la Jack-Hill 6/11). Quar­ter scores: 1st. 9-9, 2nd. 21-17 (Fire), 3rd. 36-24 (Fire).

Po­lice 20 (Je­selle Navar­ro 8/18, Shiv­aughn Skeete 0/0, Ani­ka LaRoche-Brice 11/21, Kaysha Dun­can 1/2) vs UTT 43 (Shaniya Mor­gan 12/21, Kathy-Ann Gra­ham 20/28, Kali­fa Mc­Collin-Lopez 11/15). Quar­ter scores: 1st 10-4 (UTT), 2nd 20-12 (UTT), 3rd. 33-15 (UTT).

Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion

De­fence Force 15 (Vanes­sa Brown 0/2, Christie Snag­gs 11/19, Em­press Pivette 4/12, Kin­da Thomp­son 0/1, Camille Alex­is 0/4) vs UTC 49 (Lil­i­ah Matthews 24/37, Kim­ber­ly Col­lette 9/14, Stacey-Ann Gill 1/5, Crys­tal Noel Cock­burn 15/23). Quar­ter scores: 1st 16-4, 2nd. 27-9, 3rd 35-11 (All in the favour of UTC).

Fire Youth 30 (Dionne James 21/28, Jelis­sa Goodridge 7/18, Daniel­la Hall 2/6) vs Jabloteh 24 (Giselle Hob­son 11/27, Keon­na Noel 6/21, Saman­tha James Lewis 7/11). Quar­ter scores: 1st 8-6 (Jabloteh), 2nd. 13-12 (Jabloteh) 3rd. 20-18 (Fire Youth).

MIC 46 Aaliyah Mod­este 7/17, Kani­ka Paul Payne 16/21, De’Ni­qua Rush 23/31) vs UTT 36 (Jil­lisa Brig­gs 29/37, Rhi­an­na Ali 7/15). Quar­ter scores: 1st 9-9, 2nd. 20-19 (MIC) 3rd. 31-28 (MIC).

To­mor­row’s match­es

Al­ter­na­tive Di­vi­sion

USC vs Po­lice, 5.30 pm

UWI vs MIC Tigers, 6.20 pm

Retro Di­vi­sion

De­fence Force vs Mar­vel­lites, 7.10 pm