Trouble setting up local dev site [Newbie]

I’m attempting to create a local development copy of a freshly installed template wp site, but all I see is the default wp installation.

I’m a wp newbie, and don’t understand exactly how a wp installation is configured, functions etc; so I’m sure I’m just making a very basic mistake.

The server site version was installed for me at my webhost using a woo theme; content has been added to the pages, but has not yet been customized with my name, phone, etc. There are no blog posts yet.

My goal is to create the local dev version, finish customizing the site, and then upload changes to the server.

The local machine is a macbook running OSX v10.6.8

• I installed MAMP and set my document root to ../Sites/wp
• I added a wordpress database to MAMP
• I downloaded and installed wp to the ../Sites/wp directory
• localhost:8888 takes me to the default wp installation.

So far, so good.
Next:

• I downloaded a CPanel backup of my home dir at the webhost, which contains the working wordpress site.
• I copied the www directory contents to ../Sites/wp/mysite
• I went to localhost:8888/mysite and got a db error
• I found the wp-config file and located the database user, pass, etc.
• I went into MAMP and created a db with same name as the server db
• I went into terminal and added the same mysql user and pass, and granted all permissions to the db.
• I went back to localhost:8888/mysite and now see the default wp theme, etc.

I presume since I haven’t made any posts on the server, it’s not necessary to export the db, and import it into the local machine.

I don’t understand why I’m not seeing the correct theme and content on the local dev machine, which exists on the server, since I believe all of the wordpress directories and files are copied correctly.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

TIA