After committing a critical turnover late in last night’s Division II state championship game, Korie Johnson reminded herself to "live in the moment."

The Radford sophomore then delivered a moment anyone associated with the Rams program won’t soon forget.

With the Rams trailing Kamehameha-Hawaii by a point and time flying off the clock, Johnson found herself alone under the basket and dropped in the go-ahead bucket with 3 seconds left and Radford pulled out a 43-40 win in the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Division II girls basketball state championship last night at Blaisdell Arena.

"When I got it I was nervous," Johnson admitted. "But once it went in I was super happy."

Johnson finished with 10 points for the top-seeded Rams, who will hang their first banner commemorating a girls basketball state title in Jim Alegre Gymnasium.

"It’s nice to bring that back to Radford," said fourth-year head coach Tani Almont-Done, a teacher at the school for the past decade. "I’ve been around it and felt it and seeing the tradition. … I can’t wait to see that banner."

While a sophomore provided the go-ahead bucket, seniors Kelsey Bash and Jemory Castro helped position the Rams to claim the title. Bash hit three 3-pointers and led Radford with 11 points, while Castro finished with nine points and eight rebounds and was credited with the assist to Johnson on the winning score to close a seesaw second half.

Both savored the state title in their lone season in the Radford program. Castro sat out last year after transferring from Kapolei, making this her only season of varsity basketball. Radford was Bash’s third high school after spending time in Nebraska (where she was part of a state championship team) and Illinois the previous two years.

"This is amazing; we worked so hard for it," Bash said. "We played for each other tonight and played for Coach."

"We lost a lot of players last year," said guard Rachel Kapesi, who sealed the win by hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 with 1.7 seconds left. "We didn’t really know each other and we had to jell together."

The Rams came together to sweep through the Oahu Interscholastic Association season and survive an overtime test early in the state tournament. Last night they managed to withstand the challenge presented by a Kamehameha-Hawaii team led by 6-foot-3 senior center Katelynne Paleka-Kennedy.

Paleka-Kennedy controlled the paint for much of the night and closed her high school career by scoring 19 points and grabbing 15 rebounds while blocking six shots.

It appeared for a moment that she’d lift the Warriors to their third championship when she scored on a layup to give Kamehameha-Hawaii a 40-39 lead with 17.6 seconds left.

That bucket was the result of a Radford turnover, when Johnson’s pass in the backcourt was picked off by the Warriors’ Chelsea Poe, who got the ball inside to Paleka-Kennedy.

Almont-Done called a timeout with 14.5 seconds left to settle her team down and come up with a play to break the press. Once Castro got past halfcourt, she was able to draw the defense toward her, which opened up Johnson under the basket.

"I saw (the turnover) get in (Johnson’s) head and get right back out," Almont-Done said. "We set up a play and they ran the play at the top but what happened at the end was all them. They adjusted to the situation."

Said Bash: "(Johnson) kept her head up. She was down on herself for missing that pass initially and she came right back and made that shot. It was amazing the composure she had."

Kamehameha-Hawaii turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Kapesi put the finishing touches on Radford’s landmark win.

"I just had to zone out and pretend like we were at practice," she said. "Just me and the rim."