Cap­tain and goal-shoot­er Maikea Bram­ble again led T&T shoot­ing but the na­tion­al Un­der-21 net­ballers were beat­en by Malaysia 52-40 at the first stage of the ninth to 16th quar­ter­fi­nal play-off phase of this year's Net­ball World Youth Cup in Gibral­tar, on Thurs­day.

The lo­cal net­ball team start­ed bright­ly, tak­ing a 4-1 lead in the first quar­ter be­fore the Malaysians re­spond­ed to tie the scores 4-4. The two teams con­tin­ued to ex­change goals, ty­ing the scores sev­er­al times at 5-5, 6-6 and 8-8 be­fore the Asian team opened up a three-goal ad­van­tage (11-8) and ex­tend­ed the mar­gin to five (15-10) at the end of the first quar­ter.

The red, white and black rep­re­sen­ta­tives were flat-foot­ed while their op­po­nents were quick with their short pass­es and main­tained their mo­men­tum to re­main in front 26-20 at half­time. On the re­sump­tion, Malaysians pushed more to­wards the T&T goal area and were re­ward­ed as they were up 37-30 at the third in­ter­val.

In the fi­nal pe­ri­od of play, Malaysia’s com­po­sure and ac­cu­ra­cy across the court car­ried them through as Bram­ble and her team­mates could not close the mar­gin and lost by 12 goals.

Bram­ble pro­duced 39 goals from 41 at­tempts while Kayleea Songui net­ted her lone try in her brief stint as goal at­tack in the fi­nal quar­ter. She re­placed Ja­da Hamil­ton, who had been sub­sti­tut­ed in for Keiko Roy. Both goal-at­tacks went score­less.

T&T will now face Sin­ga­pore Fri­day in the 13th to 16th po­si­tion play­off at 5 am (TT time). Sin­ga­pore was beat­en by Wales 57-39. Malaysia and Wales will con­test the 9th to 12th semi­fi­nal play­off from 11 am.

De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons New Zealand con­tin­ued their quest for a fifth ti­tle af­ter beat­ing Malawi 67-34 in the quar­ter­fi­nals. Eng­land over­came neigh­bour Scot­land 64-33 in an­oth­er quar­ter­fi­nal match. For­mer ti­tle-hold­ers Aus­tralia end­ed the hopes of Ja­maica with an 85-33 tri­umph.

T&T Squad

Team: Maikea Bram­ble (cap­tain)-GS, Nichola Gill-GD, Kalvinelle Roberts-GK, Keiko Roy-GA, Neke­sha Gomes-GD, Jeni­cia Goodridge WA, Sophia Her­nan­dez-WD, Kayleea Songui-C/WA/GA, Ja­da Hamil­ton-GA, Rick­ibah Isaac (vice cap­tain)-C

Non-start­ing play­ers: Ker­lene John­son-WD, Aza­lia Olivierre-WA, Makay­la Grant (re­serve)-GA.

Staff: Ky­ome Pas­call-Mot­t­ley (man­ag­er) Kali­fa Mc Collin (coach), Crys­tal-Ann George (as­sis­tant coach), Coreen An­drews (mas­sage ther­a­pist), Tamia Sobers (sport psy­chol­o­gist), Roland Hamil­ton (phys­i­cal train­er), Joel Cares­quero (phys­io­ther­a­pist).

Thurs­day's re­sults - Day 6

Malaysia 52 vs T&T 40

Wales 57 vs Sin­ga­pore 34

Fi­ji 61 vs Gibral­tar 31

Samoa 62 vs Ton­ga 46

Quar­ter­fi­nals

Eng­land 64 vs Scot­land 33

New Zealand 67 vs Malawi 34

Aus­tralia 85 vs Ja­maica 33

South Africa 79 vs Cook Is­lands 45

Fri­day's match­es - Day 7

Semi­fi­nals

13th-16th place

5 am - T&T vs Sin­ga­pore/Gibral­tar vs Ton­ga

5th-8th place

7 am - Ja­maica vs Cook Is­lands/Scot­land vs Malawi

9th-12th place

11 am - Malaysia vs Wales

1 pm - Fi­ji vs Samoa

1st-4th place

11 am - Eng­land vs New Zealand

1 pm - Aus­tralia vs South Africa