If there is one thing the Roosevelt girls basketball team knows how to do, it is how to shake off adversity.

Freshman Tatiana Mariano went coast-to-coast with 8.5 seconds left, dribbling down the middle of the floor and weaving through Cougars before stopping and hitting an off-balance jumper at the buzzer to give Roosevelt a 50-49 win over No. 8 Kaiser in the Oahu Interscholastic Association playoffs at Kaiser on Tuesday night.

Mariano, who joined the team for the playoffs after suffering a dislocated shoulder early in the season, missed a free throw 20 seconds earlier that would have given Roosevelt a two point lead. She was 0-for-5 from the line in the game.

“It just wasn’t my night tonight, just have to shake it off,” Mariano said of the free throws. “After that I was just thinking there is not much time left, either have to draw a foul or get to the rim, and I got to the rim.”

Kaiser’s Chandler Arce was 8.5 seconds from being the hero. After Mariano’s miss from the line, she got a good look from inside the circle at the other end. After taking a pass, the 5-foot-5 guard eyed the basket before deciding to take two dribbles and sinking a jumper. While the crowd celebrated, both benches resumed their chess match. The Rough Riders had 8.5 seconds of life.

“The main thing for us was getting the basketball in,” Roosevelt coach Hinano Higa said. “All we wanted was to get the ball in and attack the basket or draw the foul. Kaiser is long, tall and quick, we just wanted to get the ball in first.”

But the Cougars were wary of pressuring the Rough Riders, and tried to stop the ball while avoiding the whistle.

“We weren’t going to press them because they were beating us all night,” Kaiser coach Simon Bitanga said. “Things didn’t work out, but no shame. That is a tough team.”

Starr Rivera led Roosevelt with 12 points, eight of them in the second quarter, including a buzzer-beater that sent the Rough Riders into the locker room with a one-point lead. Mariano and Chelsea Wong each had 10 points in the game.

Arce led Kaiser with 13 and Darcey Goulsby added 11. The pair scored all of the Cougars’ points in the last 4 minutes.

The Rough Riders beat Aiea in the first round and toppled top seed Mililani in the second, all of this after losing starting guard Shana Kawakami before the playoffs began. Roosevelt visits Pearl City in the tournament’s final winner’s bracket game on Saturday, while Kaiser tries to battle back against Kahuku on Thursday.