Shawna Kuehu’s prayer was answered. Minutes later, she raised the Waikiki Beach Marriott Rainbow Wahine Showdown tournament trophy high.

Kuehu’s improbable, banked 3-pointer from the left wing got Hawaii to overtime against Minnesota and the Wahine — who trailed practically the whole way — dominated the extra period for a 77-71 upset of the Golden Gophers of the Big Ten Conference before a crowd of 472. UH (5-3) went 2-1 in the round-robin tournament, as did Minnesota (7-2), but won the title thanks to the head-to-head tiebreaker.

"This is a huge momentum swing for us," said Kuehu, who tied her career high of 19. "The team we just played, they’re awesome, and for us to beat them, it’s frickin’ awesome."

Ashleigh Karaitiana also tied her career best with 22 on 7-for-12 shooting (4-for-5 3-pointers) and forward Kamilah Jackson had her sixth straight double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

It was UH’s first early-season tourney championship since the 2004 Waikiki Beach Marriott Invitational.

Second-year UH coach Laura Beeman put the win up there with the best of a career spanning multiple state titles at Mt. San Antonio College and a season as an assistant with the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

"I’m going to say the way we came back from Friday night (65-60 overtime loss to Colorado State) to last night’s game (60-55 win over UT-Chattanooga) to tonight, winning it in overtime, this probably ties my first state championship (at Mt. SAC). Just because of the way we were on Friday vs. today. Two different teams."

Minnesota had a five-game winning streak snapped despite some sweet shooting by tournament MVP Rachel Banham (24 points, 6-for-13 on 3-pointers). Banham drilled one from about 25 feet for a three-point UM lead with 4.6 seconds left in regulation as a few dozen Gophers fans went nuts.

UH was in dire straits; it called timeout having to go the length of the court. Beeman set up a play with options for either Kuehu or Karaitiana off a back screen. Destiny King found Kuehu, who had just enough time to turn, elevate and fire off-balance from just beyond the arc.

She screamed along with the crowd and pumped her fist when it ricocheted off the glass and in.

It probably wouldn’t have comforted Minnesota to know the senior had only four career 3-pointers before that shot.

"Honestly, I didn’t even look at them. I was just looking at Coach like, ‘What’s next?’ " Kuehu said. "But guaranteed, I wouldn’t hesitate to say they probably were back on their heels. Momentum had switched in the game to our court. What we had to do is keep the momentum, and that’s exactly what we did."

Said Beeman: "I think when Shawna hit the 3, I think they were like, ‘Really?’ You know, ‘Really? Serious?’ That’s kind of where you want your opponent to be, thinking about how did that happen. So, hey, (Banham) hit a big one, we hit a big one."

UH scored the opening six points of overtime for its first lead since 7-6 in the first minutes of the game. Banham knocked down one more ridiculously deep 3 to get it to 74-71 with 16 seconds left, but that was all the Gophers could muster.

UH was awarded 31 trips to the free-throw line to just 12 for Minnesota, which was charged with twice as many personal fouls, 22-11.

The Wahine won the rebounding battle 37-34 over a team with a 6-foot-5 starting post player in Amanda Zahui (16 points, 14 rebounds).

Jackson and Karaitiana were named to the all-tournament team.

"I think the thing with everyone, they think that teams that are bigger than us can win," Karaitiana said. "But they don’t know us. We have Hawaii defense and we execute that every game. They don’t know that they can be stopped by us. And it shows on the floor."

UH now has four straight mainland games and does not return to the Stan Sheriff Center until the start of Big West play on Jan. 8 vs. Cal Poly.

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Read Brian McInnis’ Court Sense at staradvertiser.com/courtsense.