The Tigers, who also earned the OIA's second and final Division II state tournament berth in the process, improved to 13-4 in league play and will play host to Farrington (14-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday in a game televised live statewide on OC16.

The Governors can clinch the championship with a victory; if they lose, the teams will meet again Saturday in a one-game, winner-take-all playoff.

"Right now I'm just relieved," McKinley coach Bob Morikuni said. "I'm happy we made it to states."

Things did not look too good early on, as the Mustangs (9-8) led 9-4 after one period and 12-4 early in the second on a 3-pointer by Derick Morgan. But the Tigers clawed back and eventually tied it at 17-17 after Alex Ironside converted a three-point play with 1:04 remaining in the half.

Kalaheo then took a 19-17 lead into the break after Shane Hipa's jumper 1.9 seconds before the buzzer.

McKinley took the lead for good on free throws by Wilhelm Rivera to make it 25-23 with 3:44 left in the third period and was ahead 29-25 entering the fourth.

The Mustangs cut it to 33-30 on Sage Richardson's layup with 5:09 remaining, but that would be their final basket until the closing seconds as Lesley Machiguchi's 3-pointer with 4:02 left started the Tigers on a 13-0 run to seal the win.

"Kalaheo dictated the tempo in the first half, and they've done that every time we've played them," Morikuni said. "So we decided to press them and create some tempo in the second half."

Mustangs coach Alika Smith said foul trouble forced his team to make adjustments that did not work in their favor.

"We had some key guys out and had to change certain things," Smith said. "We had to do some things defensively we don't normally do, and they got some key offensive rebounds that shouldn't have happened. But give (McKinley) credit -- with one game and a state berth at stake, I knew they were going to take their best shot at us."

Ironside led the Tigers with a game-high 17 points and Machiguchi added 10 points.