Less than 24 hours after Kaimuki High School won the state Division I basketball championship, the campus was unusually quiet yesterday afternoon.

Don't let that fool you, though. There was real excitement and pride circulating among students, teachers and community supporters still buzzing about the Bulldogs' 61-53 victory over Punahou in the title game Friday night, the school's biggest win in more than a decade.

"It's astounding. It shows that if you stick together, even when you are in a slump, great things can happen," said 17-year-old senior Ku'ulei Misech, who was working at a coffee kiosk at the Market City Shopping Center, just across the street from the campus.

"They're good kids. They come here all the time after a game. They deserve the glory," added security guard Arthur Kaleikini.

It wasn't just the victory that had people glowing. It was the way the team and the school have managed to fight through hard times and rebound with a great sense of team spirit.

The Bulldogs hadn't won a state basketball championship since 1993, and early in the season they suffered through five losses that seemed to dim prospects of a title run this year.

But there was something about the workman-like spirit of the players rebounding from that stretch of hard times that captured the school's heart as the season wore on, said special education teacher Alex Yang.

"It was like a bandwagon. People kept getting more pumped as the season went on," said Yang, who was polishing his car under the shade of a huge campus monkeypod tree yesterday afternoon along with some friends.

"No one wants to be on a losing team, and this is good for the school. We're going to enjoy it for a while."

Zach Jenkins, a 2006 Kaimuki grad who now works across the street at the area's venerable Sekiya Restaurant, said he could see the team getting better as the year went along.

"They learned how to play with each other. That's why I'm proud of them," he said.

Kaleikini, the security guard, said he didn't watch the game, but when the Market City parking lot started filling up Friday night with jubilant fans — some with faces painted in the green and gold school colors — he knew the outcome.

"So I went home and watched the replay on TV at midnight. It was wild. They did real good for their community," he said. "That's what school pride is all about. They made everybody proud."

Back on campus, the Saturday afternoon languor was disturbed only by a mom strolling with a baby through the grounds, asking a janitor if he could open a gate so she wouldn't have to take the long way around.

You would never know how excited everyone had been the night before, except for one thing: Somebody had changed the sign out front of the school to read:

"Bulldogs are No. 1. State champions, boys basketball."

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.