SINGAPORE — They hustled, battled and gave it all they got as they tried to salvage an unlikely draw.

But despite coming close in the final quarter, Singapore’s netballers ultimately paid the price for their slow start as they suffered their first defeat in this year’s Mission Foods Netball Nations Cup, losing 38-42 to Botswana last night at the OCBC Arena.

With Singapore initially struggling to come to terms with Botswana’s physical and pacey approach, the African side were able to take a 12-7 lead in the first-quarter and from there on never relinquished control and even managed to go eight points clear in the final quarter.

Urged on by the partisan home crowd, however, Singapore staged a late fightback and reduced the deficit to just three points in the final two minutes of the match. But it ultimately proved too little, too late for the hosts, as head coach Ruth Aitken was left to rue her team’s poor start to the game.

“We started poorly in the first quarter, the second and third quarter was quite even, and I applaud our fight in the final quarter,” said Aitken. “But it’s always going to be hard when you’re playing catch up against such a strong team like Botswana.

“Early on in the match, I think we played too fast, too soon. We should have been more patient in defence and precise in attack and I think you can see that we played ideally in the final quarter.

“Nonetheless, it was still a better performance overall as compared to yesterday. We just got to get prepared for tomorrow’s match against Canada. This loss doesn’t mean anything if we eventually manage to move forward, so we got to pick ourselves up quickly because there are a lot of hard teams still to play.”

Reflecting on her team’s strong start to the game, Botswana coach Sithulile Mhlotshwa revealed that they had identified Singapore’s Goal Keeper (GK) Chen Lili as a possible weak link in the team.

“We saw that Singapore’s GK was very tall, which meant it was hard for her to bend down to get to the ball, so we decided to play a lot of bounces,” said Mhlotshwa. “We definitely deserved the first three quarters, but we panicked after Singapore changed a few of their players.

“For sure, we’re very pleased and excited to have beaten Singapore because they’re one of the best teams in the competitions. This win definitely propels us to being a medal contender now.”