HONOLULU – The Chaminade University women's basketball team ended the season with an 86-68 loss to No. 19 Azusa Pacific Saturday at McCabe Gym.
Destiny Castro (Talofofo, Guam/Notre Dame HS) capped off one of the finest seasons by a Silversword women's player by hitting 7-of-12 shots for 22 points as Chaminade head coach
Arthur King completed his first year as head coach at 2-20 overall and 2-18 in the Pacific West Conference.
Castro picked up her eighth 20-point game of the season and finished with 381 points, the third-highest for a single-season in program history. Her 17.2 point-per-game average is the second-highest behind Brittnee Fonnesbeck's single-season record of 19.5.
She also set a single-season record with 69 seals and finished with an 8.4 rebound average which is the third-best.
Azusa Pacific improved to 27-3 and 18-2 in the conference, winning a share of the PacWest regular season title with Hawai'i Pacific University. APU claims the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament on a tiebreaker.
Diamond Carter (Kapolei, Hawai'i/Olympic College) came off the bench with 15 points and five rebounds while
Breann Nueku (Honolulu/Clark College) had 11.
The team's lone senior
Jakarra Waddell (Burbank, Calif./Long Beach City College) had five points, four rebounds and two assists in her final game.
Alicia Dugan (Renton, Wash./Peninsula College) made three 3-pointers for nine points.
The first meeting between the two on Feb. 12 was a 31-point differential. However the 'Swords made plenty of adjustments to APU's full-court press and half-court trapping style in the rematch.
The Cougars seemed poised to begin the rout early but the 'Swords kept pace in the first half. They even forced APU to call two first-half timeouts. Eventually the Cougars built their lead into double-digits and owned a 44-31 halftime lead.
Azusa Pacific managed to expand its lead into the 20s although Chaminade kept the deficit from growing higher.
After getting crushed on the boards, 56-41, in the first meeting, the 'Swords were able to even out the rebounds against the taller and longer Cougars with a 36-32 difference. APU also committed just six turnovers in the first meeting but this time around, Chaminade managed to turn the tables on APU to wreak some of havoc of their own. The Silverswords forced 18 Cougar giveaways, the most turnovers APU has committed in over two months.
