IRVINE, Calif. –Chaminade University guard
Destiny Castro (Talofofo, Guam/Notre Dame HS) on Monday was named the Pacific West Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week, her third such honor this season.
The junior guard was an opponent's nightmare on both ends of the floor last week, averaging 26.7 points and 6.7 steals per game in the Silverswords' three road games and set three more program records.
Castro began by breaking her own single-game record for steals with eight last Tuesday against 25th-ranked Azusa Pacific. She also had 25 points, the most surrendered by the Cougars to a PacWest individual opponent this year.
On Thursday at Biola, she had 24 points, six assists and five rebounds while adding five steals to break the single-season steals record of 69 she set last season.
Castro capped the week and the 'Swords' Southern California road trip by pouring in 30 points at Concordia Irvine on Saturday to give her 455, breaking Brittnee Fonnesbeck's single-season record which stood for 12 years. She also added seven more steals and dished out three assists. More importantly, it led to a Chaminade victory, the program's first-ever win in the SoCal region.
Castro's prolific scoring week moved her to second in the PacWest in scoring at 19.8 points and solidified her position as the conference's theft leader at 3.5. With 80 steals this season, she is just two away from the conference's top 10 for a single season. Two more thefts would also make her just the seventh player in PacWest history to reach 200 for a career. Castro is also ranked 26th nationally in scoring and sixth in steals per game.
The Silverswords (6-18, 5-15 PacWest) close the season this week against Notre Dame de Namur and Hawai'i Hilo. Thursday's contest against the Argos is Aloha Senior Night where
Diamond Carter (Kapolei, O'ahu, Hawai'i/Olympic College/Kapolei HS),
Hunter Liftee (Kamuela, Hawai'i/Central Methodist Univ./Honoka'a HS) and
Sephora Yayouss (Brussels, Belgium/Peninsula College/K.A. Etterbeek HS) will be honored.
Hawai'i Pacific Health is the game sponsor and will be doing giveaways throughout the contest and fans are encouraged to wear pink for both the men's and women's games.
Chaminade concludes the season Saturday at Hawai'i Hilo and will look for the season sweep of the Vulcans.
Two wins by the 'Swords would set the program record for victories and an eighth-place conference finish which would be their highest since the PacWest expansion to 10 teams in 2011-12.
The other weekly conference awardees are Azusa Pacific's Laura Pranger (Defender) and Jasmine Rachal of Concordia (Freshman).
