KAKAAKO — Three is the magic number for the Pearl City Chargers. 

Kyrie Chen scored six of her team-high 10 points in the fourth quarter to spark Pearl City to a 30-24 win over Kaiser in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II girls basketball tournament Wednesday. 

It is the Chargers (17-6 overall, 10-0 league) third win over the Cougars (9-7, 8-2) this season and represents their third league crown in program history. 

The game was largely a defensive struggle for the first three quarters. Kaiser took a 16-15 lead into the final stanza, but Pearl City pulled away with a 15-8 fourth-quarter surge to claim its second OIA D2 title under Kyle Martin in four years. 

"Just hats off to them," Martin said of his squad. 

"This is the third time we played Kaiser and there's that old saying about how hard it is to beat a team three times and Kaiser is so talented and so strong-willed — they gave us everything they had — it was just so good to see our girls not give up the fight," Martin added. 

The Chargers and Cougars entered the night averaging better than 51 and 48 points per game, respectively, but both squads found difficulty scoring Wednesday. 

Pearl City shot just 8 of 42 (19 percent) from the field, including 5 of 25 on 3-pointers, while Kaiser was 7 of 34 (20.6 percent) and 4 of 16 from beyond the arc. 

Not only did both teams struggle to shooting from the field, it carried over to the free-throw line. The Chargers were a woeful 9 of 24 at the charity stripe, while the Cougars made 6 of 13 free throws. 

However, Martin's squad did enough at the line down the stretch; It made 6 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter. Pearl City also splashed three of its five made 3-pointers in the final eight minutes, including a pair of Mimi Gonzalez Salazar. 

Early in the fourth quarter, Gonzalez Salazar hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie it at 18. After Kaiser pulled even on a Fran Correa free throw with 2:49 to play, Gonzalez Salazar gave her team the lead for good with her second triple on the Chargers' next possession.

Pearl City made just one of its 12 3-point attempts in the first half, but made 4 of 13 after the intermission. 

"We talked about it at halftime a little bit, just trusting the process. We had some games where the shots weren't falling in the first half, but we're just going to keep trusting each other," Martin said.

"The shots weren't falling (in the first half, but) it was just good to see them play to the very end."

The Cougars employed a box-and-1 defensive scheme with either Lyla Moura or Kyri Perkins face-guarding Riya Tobosa, Pearl City's prolific scorer who carried a state-best 25.7-point per game average into Wednesday night.

The strategy largely worked as Tobosa managed only four shots from the field; She didn't make her first shot until the 4:41 mark of the first quarter and tallied just four points in the first half. 

"They were face-guarding double-coverage on Riya and I just told the girls to just ‘keep shooting it, believe in yourself.' We practice shooting all the time at practice and it was just good to see a couple of them start to fall," Martin said. 

Kaiser managed to cut it to a one-score game after Audry Higa made the front end of two free throws with 53.5 seconds remaining. That pulled her team to within 27-24, but Chen made a free throw with 23.3 seconds left to stretch it to a two-possession lead, then knocked down two more about nine seconds later to close it out. 

Martin's roster includes six seniors, while Chen is one of four freshmen on the squad. He credited one of those veterans — fourth-year guard Chloe Bulatao — for serving as a role model for Chen. 

Bulatao was a freshman starter when Pearl City won its last OIA D2 title back in 2023. 

"Chloe and Kyrie are like best friends on the team, so Chloe's been kind of mentoring her adjusting to the life of high school basketball, but definitely, I think it's kind of like a passing of the torch," Martin detailed. 

Chen was the lone Charger to score in double-figures. She also recorded seven steals, five rebounds and an assists in 30 minutes of game time. 

"What we like about Kyrie is she's not afraid. She'll take it, she'll do offense, defense — she's just not afraid and you love to see that out of a freshman," Martin said. 

Gonzalez Salazar scored all nine of her points on 3-pointers, Tobosa finished with eight points, seven rebounds, five blocks and two steals and Tatiana Lee chipped in five rebounds, five steals and two assists. 

Martin tipped his cap to Kaiser coach Noah Keolanui for drawing up a solid game plan against Tobosa, who scored 21 points the last time the teams met, just two weeks prior. 

"They just made it really hard to get the ball into Riya, because we like to play from within. It was really good to see Riya keep her composure because I know she was getting a little bit frustrated. They were making her work really hard and credit to Kaiser and their coach. It was really smart the things they came up with and they gave us a hard time," Martin said. 

Moura made three of the Cougars' four 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 12 points. Trinity Ho posted four points, five rebounds and two assists and Lauae Kamakana notched 11 rebounds, three points, two steals and a block in the loss. 

Kaiser was plagued by 27 turnovers despite out-rebounding Pearl City, 40-31. 

The Cougars' largest lead came at 13-8 late in the first quarter. They led at the half, 13-10. 

The Chargers also beat the Cougars early in the preseason (42-30 on Nov. 14 at Pearl City) and again in the regular season (48-45 on Jan. 14 at Kaiser). 

Kaiser was seeking its second league championship; its only other OIA title came in 1989. 

Both teams, along with third-place finisher Aiea, will represent the OIA in next week's Flying Hawaiian Foundation/HHSAA D2 State Championships, which runs Feb. 4-7 at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo.