Shaun Dela Calzada made both ends of a one-and-one with 55 seconds remaining in overtime and Beau Albrechtson followed with four free throws down the stretch last night to lift Kaimuki to a 46-41 victory over Kamehameha in the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Boys Basketball Championship semifinals.

The Bulldogs (14-2) will play Iolani (13-2), a 60-36 winner over Kahuku (14-3), at 8 tonight for the title at the University of Hawai'i's Stan Sheriff Center. The game also will be televised live statewide on OC-16.

Kaimuki will be going after its second state title — its first one came in 1993, when the Bulldogs were led by homegrown point guard Shannon Lee and two 6-foot-5 transfers from Croatia.

This year's group has no such foreign presence.

"There is so much hype, the whole school is excited," said Albrechtson, a junior forward who had a team-high 11 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks. "This is big-time for Kaimuki."

It almost didn't happen, as a raucous Sheriff Center crowd of 1,999 was left in suspense until the very end.

The Bulldogs led 30-23 early in the fourth period, but turned the ball over on four straight possessions and the Warriors (12-4) cut it to 36-35 on Pono Hanson's layup with 1:20 remaining. Keone Reyes answered with a driving layup 14 seconds later to make it 38-35, but Andrew Godinet swished a 3-pointer from the left wing to tie it with 20 ticks left.

Albrechtson was called for a charge with five seconds left, and Kamehameha's last-second attempt missed at the horn.

"It was heartbreaking," Albrechtson said of Kaimuki's fourth-period slide. "That call could have gone either way. They had the momentum after that, but we couldn't give up."

That frame of mind is what got the Warriors back in the game, despite being out-rebounded 16-8 in the first half and never holding the lead in regulation. In fact, they had tied it only once — at 20-20 in the half — but that last only 26 seconds as Albrechtson made a putback at the buzzer.

"These kids always fight back, they have resiliency, and that's a sign of their character," Kamehameha coach Jesse Nakanishi said.

The Warriors took their first lead of the game with 1:21 left in overtime, after Hanson's 12-foot baseline jumper. But Dela Calzada calmly sank both ends of his one-and-one and Albrechtson made four of his six attempts after rebounding Kamehameha misses.

"We were fortunate," Kaimuki coach Kelly Grant said. "But if you saw our kids after (Godinet) hit that shot, they didn't get bent out of shape. It's happened before, that's been the story of our life the past two years, so they knew how to handle it."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.