The junior totaled 51 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, 11 steals and three blocks in two wins that improved Valley View to 11-1 overall. One of the wins was a 45-43 victory over Scranton Prep that marked the first time since January 2004 that the Cougars beat the Classics. Castellani had 23 points, four rebounds, three assists, five steals and two blocks in that game. She then had 28 points, seven rebounds, four assists, six steals and one block in a 59-35 triumph of Wallenpaupack.<\/p>\n
Family: Father, Corey; mother, Kelly; brother, Nico<\/p>\n
Coach: Rob Martin<\/p>\n
What were some of the things the defense to hold Scranton Prep scoreless for the final 2:41, enabling the team to rally from a three-point deficit for the win: I\u2019d say the top three things we did that whole game was definitely our defense, rebounding was a big one and just playing at our own pace, not speeding up. We had really good on-ball defense, we rebounded and didn\u2019t give them second looks when they got shots up and playing at our pace. We didn\u2019t panic and did the little things that needed to be done. That helped us win the game.<\/p>\n
How about your defensive mindset and how you are able to get so many steals and blocks: Me personally, I play very confident and I feel I\u2019ve been playing smart. As a team, it helps that we\u2019re all friends on and off the court. It\u2019s never I in the game of basketball to me. No matter what you do, offense, defense, it\u2019s never one person. I feel that has been helping us win this season so far. Playing as a team.<\/p>\n
Is there anything in your game offensively that you\u2019ve worked on that helped you score as many points as you did last week: I definitely would say driving to the basket more. Especially in the Wallenpaupack game. My threes were really off and my shot in general. So I took it to the basket more and that\u2019s definitely where I got most of my points. So I\u2019d say taking it to the basket.<\/p>\n
The win over Scranton Prep was the first for Valley View since 2004. What does that mean to you and what can that do for the team moving forward: Scranton Prep is still a very good team. But beating them sets our bar a little higher. It gives us more confidence and we can take that same amount of energy to the next games we\u2019re going to play.<\/p>\n
How crazy is it that you weren\u2019t born the last time Valley View beat Scranton Prep: It\u2019s a really cool thing. How many years they held that, it\u2019s good that I got to experience ending that.<\/p>\n
What is it like playing in such a tough division like Lackawanna Division I: I feel all of the schools are equal, so it depends who does what better that game. We try to focus on what we need to do to win because it can be anyone\u2019s game. The little things like rebounding, good defense, getting good looks on offense. It\u2019s very fun to play in those games. To have those moments with our team, I love everyone on our team. It\u2019s really fun to win with the team I\u2019m with.<\/p>\n
Other sports I play: Softball<\/p>\n
You started on Valley View\u2019s state softball championship team last season. What was that experience like: It was very exciting and we recently\u00a0 got our rings for that. I still think about it, I\u2019ll never get over it. I don\u2019t think any person will if you were on that team. It was just a very, very exciting thing. I\u2019m really happy that I can go through my life saying I was a state champion.<\/p>\n
What, if anything, did you take from that experience that helps you in basketball: Just that the work you put in definitely helps. Getting out on the field, getting reps, being on the court and working on the things you need to work on. I\u2019d just say the hard work pays off.<\/p>\n
Favorite teams: For football, I\u2019ve always been a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. My whole family has been. I like watching everyone for basketball, but lately I\u2019ve been a fan of LSU because I like their energy and I really like their uniforms as well. As far as the WNBA, I like the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n
Favorite food: Steak<\/p>\n
Cake or pie: Pie<\/p>\n
Favorite school subject: I do dual enrollment at Lackawanna College and I took a criminal justice. I thought that was real interesting and I hope to make a career possibly in that. So I\u2019d have to say that.<\/p>\n
Athletes I admire:\u00a0 One is Natasha Cloud of the New York Liberty. She reminds me of myself with the energy she brings. Then Caitlin Clark because I really like the confidence that she has. No matter what she always has that confidence. And then Michael Jordan, just because he\u2019s different from everybody else.<\/p>\n
Superstitions or rituals: My dad has holy oil and he blessed me with it and puts it on my knees to hope for no injuries. He also will light a holy candle on my game days.<\/p>\n
If I could have any superpower, it would be: Super speed or invisibility.<\/p>\n
One word to best describe me: Determined<\/p>\n
App on my phone I used the most: Snapchat or TikTok<\/p>\n
Three people I\u2019d like to have dinner with: Natasha Cloud, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant<\/p>\n
Post-graduation plans: I want to go to college and play basketball as well. That\u2019s definitely the goal. I would like to set my career doing something in criminal justice. I\u2019m not quite sure yet what that is, but hopefully I can achieve that.<\/p>\n
Do you prefer playing basketball over softball: One thing that\u2019s important that I want to say is whatever season I\u2019m in, whether it\u2019s softball or basketball, I definitely give 100 percent to that sport. Both of them are just so fun to be in and I enjoy that team. I just give 100 percent and support everyone else out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The junior totaled 51 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists, 11 steals and three blocks in two wins that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7804,305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-85340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-athlete-of-the-week","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}