It was hustle against muscle last night in McKinley's Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East girls basketball game at Kailua.

Hustle prevailed.

The swift Tigers outlasted the strong Surfriders 38-33 by collecting 13 steals among 16 total Kailua turnovers. It was enough to negate the Surfriders' solid play inside—a massive 40-23 rebounding advantage to go with an efficient post game.

McKinley (5-2) entered the contest on a two-game losing streak after starting off OIA Red East play 4-0. Tigers coach Abel Werner called it “;probably the biggest win of the season”; to this point, just as his team starts a stretch of several road games.

“;Just to get us on track,”; he said. “;I told the girls, all they gotta do is stay with each other and get motivated. If we play as a team, we're gonna be pretty much unstoppable.”;

Junior Kylie Sato led the Tigers with 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. She extended Kailua's defense early by hitting her team's only two 3-pointers, and helped keep the Tigers on top late in the fourth quarter by calmly evading Kailua defenders as she dribbled out precious seconds.

“;We just had to regroup and play as a team,”; said Sato, who missed the whole preseason with a wrist injury. “;Tonight we worked better together than we did before (in losses to Farrington and Roosevelt).”;

The Surfriders (1-5) were coming off their first league win of the season and hung with the Tigers through second-chance opportunities. They tallied 17 offensive rebounds, but couldn't buy a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter (0-for-6) when Kailua needed to make up ground.

McKinley was successful in disrupting Kailua's offense all night long with fullcourt pressure and opened up their biggest lead at seven points with 2 minutes, 37 seconds left on a Brenda Walker basket.

From there the Surfriders had to go to fouling, but the Tigers eluded them enough in the final 2 minutes to sweep the season series.

Senior Ashley Jacobs led Kailua with 14 points. Forwards Anu Ah Yun and Sola Williams combined to grab 18 rebounds.

“;This is a team we feel we know a lot about, just from playing them a lot of times in the last two years (in the OIA White),”; first-year Kailua coach Zach Stephens said. “;These guys are as savvy and as aggressive and hard-working as any good team out there. A lot of credit to McKinley for playing some tough defense, and making us work for everything out there.”;

McKinley was up 19-16 at halftime.