Lying in a hospital bed five months ago, recovering from surgery to remove his spleen after a football injury, Punahou School senior Kameron Steinhoff's thoughts immediately turned to Feb. 23, 2008.

His goal since the previous February — when Kaimuki rallied past the Buffanblu to win the boys basketball state title — was to get another chance at grasping that championship trophy and not letting go.

"It made me want to recover and get healthy even more and more," said Steinhoff, a 6-foot-5 forward who played receiver in football. "The doctor was telling me I might not be able to play (basketball), but my progress went along and I knew I was going to be able to come back from that."

He was released from the hospital on Sept. 22, after a one-week stay, and showed up on the first day of basketball practice, Nov. 5, ready for action.

"As soon as I came out of the hospital, I felt better and was able to go back to school a couple weeks later," Steinhoff said. "While football (season) was still going on, I was able to go back into the gym and shoot whenever I could."

In an early nonleague showdown on Dec. 8, Steinhoff scored a game-high 17 points — including seven in the fourth period — to help the Buffanblu squeak past arch rival 'Iolani in the championship game of Radford's Jim Alegre Invitational.

"For a normal person, it would take about six weeks to heal (from spleen removal surgery) and a few more weeks to go back to playing a contact sport," said 'Iolani coach Mark Mugiishi, who is a surgeon in internal medicine by day. "If you're younger, you have a better chance of coming back faster, but still what he did is a remarkable thing. He looked good from the very first time we saw him play this season."

Steinhoff actually showed great improvement from last season, when he already was a second-team all-Interscholastic League of Honolulu selection.

Using sleek moves under the basket and surprising accuracy from mid-range and 3-point territory, Steinhoff averaged 16.9 points per game during the ILH season.

"He's always been tough to defend, but this year he definitely was more difficult to guard," Mugiishi said. "He was able to score inside and also hit 3-point shots, so that showed diversity in his game. And he became a better defender, he took charges and blocked shots. He's been more of a force all-around."

In Punahou's thrilling 41-38 victory over Kamehameha-Hawai'i in last Saturday's state championship game, Steinhoff scored a team-high 13 points, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, made two steals, blocked two shots and had one assist.

He had nine points and five rebounds by halftime, helping the Buffanblu end the second quarter with a 12-0 run to lead 23-19 at the break.

"We had a hard time answering their post play," Warriors coach Nelson Wong said.

Punahou had won its previous three state tournament games in convincing fashion, but needed a tip-in putback by Henry Cassiday with 45 seconds remaining to take a 39-38 lead against Kamehameha-Hawai'i and then another layup basket by Cassiday with 11 seconds left to provide a small cushion.

The Warriors had an open 3-point attempt rim out with about three seconds remaining and the Buffanblu secured the rebound and ran out the final ticks.

"(Kamehameha-Hawai'i) came out on fire, we didn't expect that," Steinhoff said. "Compared to the other games when we were blowing them out, they came to play and I give them credit. They're a great team."

When it was over, draped with lei and congratulatory gifts from friends and family, Steinhoff finally had the look of satisfaction that was one year in the making.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for, right here," he said. "Ever since last year, coming off from that loss, our goal was to come right back to where we left off and finish it this time."

Read Wes' blog on prep sports at http://blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.