The smile on Alika Smith’s face said it all.

After another bruising grind of a battle with McKinley, Smith’s Kalaheo Mustangs pulled out a 33-29 win for the Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference championship Saturday night.

Shem Sukumaran continued his clutch shooting, draining three free throws in the final 32 seconds, including one with 4.4 seconds left to put the game out of reach.

“Our coaches told me to calm down and shoot like I do at practice,” the 6-foot-3 guard said. “I learned from the best.”

“The best” would be Smith, a former sharpshooting guard at Kalaheo and the University of Hawaii. He was on red alert all game long as his team faced McKinley’s aggressive zone and man-to-man defenses. Kalaheo led 30-24 with 5:25 left after a layup by Nainoa Frank, but nearly gave the game away with six fourth-quarter turnovers.

“If we can fix that, we’ll be a darn good team,” Smith said. “We’re still dealing with 16- and 17-year-old kids, so sometimes the moment is really big, but they played bigger. We had to dig deep, fight and claw against a good McKinley team. Shem came up huge.”

Josh Ko led Kalaheo (36-6) with eight points, while Derick Morgan added seven. Jordyn Reindollar hauled in a team-high eight rebounds and Frank corralled seven boards.

The Mustangs’ man defense kept a lid on McKinley (21-8), which shot just 9-for-29 from the field and 9-for-19 at the foul line.

Kalaheo had a 24-16 rebounding edge and did not allow the Tigers a single offensive board in the first half. Justly Laguihon led them with seven points. Alex Ironside finished with five points, hounded by Morgan most of the night. He suffered an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, but returned.

Both teams had already qualified for this week’s Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Boys Basketball State Championships.

The first half featured eight lead changes. The Mustangs opened a 23-17 lead midway through the third quarter on a turnaround jumper by Reindollar.

Coach Bob Morikuni’s squad got to within 30-28 with 4 minutes left on a follow shot from Wilhelm Rivera, but went cold from there and didn’t get closer.

For Smith, back-to-back battles with Kalaheo’s nemesis in the OIA White East — McKinley beat Kalaheo last week at Pete Smith Court — required constant infusions of energy.

“There are days when you’ve got to will these kids to do it,” Smith said. “We stuck together as a team and they picked each other back up. We had to play unbelievable defense in the last 3 minutes.

“I feel great.”