PASADENA — Maranatha’s comeback attempt against San Gabriel Academy came up short during Tuesday’s CIF State Southern California Division III Regional championship game at Pasadena High School.
San Gabriel Academy’s 6-foot-11 center Mahamadou Diop finished with 16 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocks, but his biggest contributions were his two rebounds and putbacks in the final two minutes that helped seal a 58-49 victory that clinched the regional title.
San Gabriel Academy’s Mahamadou Diop (34) hoists the Championship plaque as they celebrate their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy shows their Championship plaque after their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Mahamadou Diop (34) makes a slam dunk as they play Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Mahamadou Diop (34) and Oumar Dabo (40) celebrate their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Coco Britt (1) drives toward the basket as they play Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Maranatha’s Chris Smaith (23) makes a shot against San Gabriel Academy in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Mahamadou Diop (34) celebrates their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Xavier Wang (23) lays up a shot against Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
Maranatha’s Chris Smith (23) drives to the basket as they play San Gabriel Academy in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s head coach, Daniel Piepoli, raises the championship trophy after their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s Mamadou Traore (5) shows the Championship plaque after their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy players celebrate their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy players celebrate their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy’s head coach, Daniel Piepoli, celebrates their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
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San Gabriel Academy’s Mahamadou Diop (34) hoists the Championship plaque as they celebrate their win over Maranatha in the CIF State Southern California Division III boys basketball regional championship game at Pasadena High School on Tuesday March 11, 2025. San Gabriel Academy defeated Maranatha 58-49. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)
San Gabriel Academy (20-13) advances to Saturday’s state championship game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. SGA will take on Kings Academy (27-4) at 2 p.m.
SGA, which will be playing for its first state title, made coach Danny Piepoli sweat it out.
“Our team knows how to make it interesting for sure,” Piepoli said. “We’ve had times this season when adversity hits in a game, and one or two bad things happen and it compounds into us losing games. It just shows our maturity and growth to pull it out. We’re champions, they can’t take that away from us.”
When San Gabriel Academy’s Mamadou Traore threw down a two-handed dunk midway through the third quarter to give the Eagles a 15-point lead, you could feel it slipping away for the Minutemen.
But the Minutemen finished the third quarter on a 15-5 run on Giacomo Manzella’s lay-up at the buzzer to make it a five-point game heading to the fourth.
And they kept coming.
Maranatha’s Chris Smith, who finished with a team-high 12 points, was fouled making a 3-pointer and injured his leg, allowing Bryan Lopez-Wood to come off the bench and hit the free throw for a four-point play to cut the Eagles’ lead to three points.
Maranatha’s George Pamilton drove inside and scored with 4:11 to play to give the Minutemen a 48-47 lead, which was their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.
“Look, they’re (Maranatha) in the championship game for a reason, they weren’t going to go away,” Piepoli said. “That big four-point play when things started to swing just shows they’ve got a heck of a team. They’re tough as nails, nothing but respect for them over there.”
But down the stretch, Diop made the game-winning plays.
After SGA retook the lead 49-48, Diop rebounded a missed shot and dunked it with 1:29 left for a three-point lead. It was a brutal moment for Maranatha because 6-foot-7 Harrison Harper, who finished with nine points and nine blocks, was injured on the play. Harper, who was their only true rim protector, went down with a scary knee injury and had to be helped off the floor.
“That was tough right there,” Maranatha coach Tim Tucker said. “Those guys (San Gabriel Academy) are so big and I thought (Harper) was doing a great job battling and giving us a chance.”
With a minute to go and the Eagles up two points, Diop rebounded another missed shot and scored for a 53-49 lead with 59 seconds to play, and the Eagles would pull away down the stretch.
Along with Diop, San Gabriel Academy also boasted 6-foot-8 sophomore Mahamed Toure, who finished with nine points and six rebounds.
“It took us a while to adjust to their size, but the game was won with them inside and those two plays (by Diop) were big plays,” Tucker said. “We got the lead and I was proud of my guys the way they fought back. They played as well as they can against two giants like that.”
Diop, who only scored two points in the third quarter, said he felt a responsibility to make big plays to seal the win after the Minutemen had rallied back.
“That’s what I do, that’s my job, I help my teammates,” Diop said. “When they came back, we just had to play good defense, rebound and stay together, that’s it.”
Xavier Wang was big in the fourth quarter for SGA, scoring eight of his 10 points. Traore finished with nine points
But the difference was rebounding.
“We said rebounding was going to be the biggest thing,” Piepoli said. “In this game it was about controlling the rebounds and utilizing our size. We shouldn’t lose the rebounding battles and teams that get more rebounds tend to get more shots and that’s the name of the game.”
Rabenold and Lopez-Wood added eight points apiece for the Minutemen, who finish the season with a 17-18 overall record.
