After Jayla Tamashiro’s shaky start to Thursday’s OIA White championship game, Kalaheo coach Neil Bowers pulled her aside and told her to "hit reset."

Energized by the restart, Tamashiro hit pretty much everything she sent toward the basket the rest of the way.

Tamashiro drained five 3-pointers and finished with 30 points as Kalaheo captured its first OIA girls basketball title since 2002 with a 59-51 win over Kailua at Waipahu.

"It just came naturally," Tamashiro said. "I didn’t really have to think, my body was just doing what it does and it worked.

"I’ve never scored over 16 points. I don’t even believe it."

Tamashiro struggled to get on track in the game’s opening moments, but hit her first 3-pointer late in the first quarter and added four more in her 13-point second quarter.

She was both scorer and facilitator in the third quarter with five points and three assists and sparked the Mustangs defensively while scoring nine of Kalaheo’s 15 points in the final quarter as the Mustangs held off Kailua’s comeback bid.

"She started off really rocky, a couple of turnovers, a couple airballs. We got her out, we told her to hit reset and she was feeling it," Bowers said. "Cold blooded, she’s our scrapper."

Bowers, a 2004 Kalaheo graduate, was a part of three OIA championships as a member of the Mustangs boys program. "I’m honestly more proud of this one as a coach," he said.

"This is three years in the making," Bowers said. "I have three girls who’ve been with me for three years, so that core carried us."

Tamashiro has been with the Mustangs for the past two seasons and will have a part in two banners hanging in the school’s gym. She helped Kalaheo win a state paddling championship as a freshman and her shooting performance on Thursday will be the enduring memory of the girls basketball program’s first OIA White title.

"This is was so much better because it’s my senior year and it’s my last year at Kalaheo and I want to leave all I can to the school," Tamashiro said.

Kailua was seeking its first OIA title and took a 15-7 lead after the first quarter. After Tamashiro helped the Mustangs open up a 13-point lead in the third quarter, the Surfriders closed to five with just under three minutes left. But Tamashiro had two steals and Tara Takata added another to fuel an 8-0 Kalaheo run to put the game out of reach.

"I knew (the Surfriders) were capable of cutting (the lead) down," said first-year Kailua coach Amanda Llamedo, who saw the Surfriders rally from a 17-point deficit to win the regular-season meeting with Kalaheo. "They ran out of gas at the end, but they laid it out there.

"We didn’t plan to be here this year. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to coach these girls. They’re a young team. Very few of them had played together, so I think there’s a bright future for the program."

Patria Vaimaona led Kailua with 16 points. Delcie Williams added 12 and Kahoa Mikaele finished with 10.

Both the Mustangs and Surfriders will now reset their focus on next week’s Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Division II Girls Basketball Championship.

"I’m going to soak this one in tonight and then start getting ready," Bowers said. "I told the girls right after the game, celebrate but don’t be satisfied."