Carissa McBride can patrol and protect with the best of them.

The 6-foot senior had the game of her life when it mattered most, amassing 21 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks in a wild 58-55 double-overtime win over rival Mililani for the OIA Red championship on Thursday. She was the difference in a semifinal win over Kaimuki, with 18 points, eight boards, three blocks and four assists.

Court vision. A velvety baseline shot. A smart low-post game. Maturity in decision-making. Add it up and the Mules have their first OIA girls crown. Ever.

"Everybody’s saying congratulations for winning the OIA," McBride said. "But nobody’s saying anything about states."

It was Sunday night when she made that observation, though. By now, with the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA state girls basketball tourney tipping off today, the Mules are probably getting plenty of chatter and a big sendoff. They have a first-round bye and begin play Wednesday.

"Our fans are great. They came (to the playoff games) and made us feel proud," McBride said. "It felt like being at home."

With McBride, Elyshia Bowden and reserve Tyanna Abbott in the post, the perimeter has been wide open for guards Jerrilyn Maluyo and Tiffany Reyher. Coach Elroy Dumlao doesn’t have a deep bench, but chemistry and conditioning are what the Mules (22-3) have. They’re seeded third among the four league champions in the tourney, which surprised McBride. She thought the seeding committee would have the Mules fourth, but an underdog mentality still prevails.

"I think people overlook us. We have a great mixture with small guards and tall guards, with ‘E’ (Bowden) and Tyanna. The whole team is into it," she said.

McBride’s combination of finesse, power and poise has rarely been seen in the OIA West, a region of the island that hasn’t produced elite girl hoopsters at the same rate as their town-side cousins. Not until now.

Leilehua’s offseason program, Central Side Basketball Club, led by Dumlao and coordinated by Kristie Sasamura — a former all-state soccer player — has developed many players who have stuck out the hard times. The reward manifested itself with a league title and a stunning realization for the community: Wahiawa, like other hotbeds around the islands, has become home to a state title contender.

Konawaena has its Kona Stingrays program, starting its third decade of training young ballers. Roosevelt has 808 Basketball, an enduring, weekly source of fundamentals. Kalakaua Clinic, led for more than four decades by Dennis Agena, is the granddaddy of them all. There are other iconic programs, like Hilo’s Vulcan Camp started by Jimmy Yagi and Bill O’Rear, that have inspired generations of young players who grew up and brought their children and grandchildren back.

At Wahiawa, the game has become part of the Mules’ DNA, at least for McBride. As an eighth-grader, she started to fall in love with the sport.

"We were tall and lanky. We had a hard time controlling our bodies," said Kyla Larson, a classmate and friend at Wahiawa Middle School who now plays softball for the Mules. "She was clumsy at times, but she would be practicing all the time. She gave up softball and focused on basketball. She got way better. She turned out good."

She began playing with Central Side as an eighth-grader, traveling with the team for mainland tournaments, training each offseason with total commitment. Spring basketball league, summer travel, fall league and conditioning. Mules season. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Dumlao and football assistant coach Mark Kurisu designed an offseason running and weight training regimen that tested the girls’ mettle. Instead of fading, the Mules girls were stubbornly persistent.

"Bear crawls. They had us doing bear crawls on the sand," McBride said of weekly jaunts to Alii Beach in Haleiwa. "Everything was hard. Coach (Dumlao) would push me to the point where I couldn’t go any more, where we have to just suck it up. He’d say, ‘If you guys want to quit, there’s the door.’ He’s a real straightforward coach."

Nobody left. Nobody quit.

"We just worked harder. We wanted it more than other teams," McBride said.

A self-described "slow runner" as a freshman, she embraced training and basketball. School didn’t take a back seat; she has a 3.0 grade-point average, which led to a sizable offer from Chaminade University coach Bobby Keanini.

That’s where the patrol-and-protect mind-set takes root. McBride and her old pal, Larson, grew up loving the TV show "The First 48," an investigative series that follows homicide detectives across the country. Even before that, McBride was a huge fan of the old reality series "Cops." A 3-year-old glued to the screen, watching law enforcement officers in action. That’s what she’s looking forward to, especially since Chaminade offers a criminal justice program.

"This is the first I’ve heard about her wanting to be a cop," said Dumlao, who is an employee at Oahu Community Correctional Center. "If you have a passion for it, I always encourage our girls to go for it. You have to commit and sacrifice to be successful in basketball. That’s what carries over to the real world. It’s about responsibilities in the classroom and in basketball."

Leilehua will play the Hilo-Roosevelt winner Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Radford’s James Alegre Gymnasium.