Sacred Hearts overcame an injury to its point guard and used an "interesting" stall tactic to beat Campbell, 53-37, last night in the semifinals of the Hawaiian Airlines/HHSAA Girls Division II Basketball State Championships at McKinley.

Nalani Bayne and Raecha-Ann Kauahikaua scored 12 points apiece for Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion Sacred Hearts (15-0), which will meet Kamehameha-Hawai'i for the title at 6 tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

This is Sacred Hearts' first appearance in the state tournament.

"I'm very, very happy that our team made it this far," Bayne said. "We knew we could always do it. We put our heart and effort into this."

Sacred Hearts started quickly, and Ashley Ordenstein scored five points during a 7-0 run as the Lancers took a 13-5 lead in the second quarter.

Sacred Hearts then stalled for the last 4:10 of the first half before missing a shot at the buzzer.

"The stall was interesting," said Campbell coach Nathan Macadangdang, who instructed his team to stay in their tough 1-2-2 zone during that time. "I didn't want to chase them, but unfortunately we had to. We were only down 13-5, and we were still in the game. I felt in the second half we could have pulled it out."

Sacred Hearts' coach Alan Matsui said he decided to slow the game after point guard Kauahikaua went out with an injured thumb in the second quarter. Kauahikaua, who is also nursing a bad back, returned in the second half.

Matsui said he wanted to force Campbell (14-3) out of its zone to play man-to-man defense against his quick team.

"We felt if we got an early lead ... we could pull it out and make them play our game," said Matsui, whose players repeatedly scored layups off screens in the second half.

"We don't play 'man' usually," Macadangdang said. "We don't like to play catch-up. "

The Lancers spread the court and opened the second half with an 8-0 run for a 21-5 lead.

Oli Kila stopped Campbell's 11-minute scoring drought with a layup that cut the deficit to 21-7 with 3:38 to go in the third quarter.

But the Sabers couldn't stop the Lancers, who stretched their lead to 37-15 in the fourth quarter.

The Lancers sealed the game by making 16 of 25 free throws in the final quarter. They were 24-34 for the game; Campbell was 14 of 19.

Matsui said Kauahikaua will be available for tonight's game.

"This is all uncharted ground for us," Matsui said. "We're taking it one game at a time. I'm telling them don't treat it like any other game."

Campbell, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association third-place team, was led by Kila who scored nine.

Reach Brandon Masuoka at bmasuoka@honoluluadvertiser.com.