BRIDGETOWN – Bar­ba­dos kicked off their ti­tle de­fence of the Jean Pierre Caribbean Youth Net­ball com­pe­ti­tion with an em­phat­ic 46-7 thump­ing of An­tigua and Bar­bu­da when ac­tion got un­der­way at the Wildey Gym­na­si­um in Bar­ba­dos on Sun­day.

The Ba­by Gems, as they are af­fec­tion­ate­ly known, are seek­ing their fourth straight ti­tle.

The home side got off to a fast start, rush­ing out to an 11-2 lead in the open­ing quar­ter and by the half had ex­tend­ed their ad­van­tage to 19 (22-3).

Bar­ba­dos con­tin­ued to put their feet on the gas and held a mam­moth 32-4 lead at the end of the third quar­ter.

Goal shoot­er Makel Al­leyne led the way for the Ba­by Gems scor­ing 35 of her 42 at­tempts, Tye­sha Trot­man net­ted sev­en of eight shots while Tyra Grif­fith made four of her nine at­tempts.

The tour­na­ment con­tin­ues on Mon­day with Grena­da com­ing up against Trinidad and To­ba­go, St Lu­cia will play An­tigua and Bar­bu­da and Bar­ba­dos will take on Do­mini­ca.

CMC