MANHATTAN BEACH >> San Gabriel Academy boys basketball coach Kevin McCloskey talked about his school’s mantra of lifting each other up and never pushing each other down.

He said that was evident in his team’s character as it battled back from a 10-point deficit to narrowly defeat Oakwood 66-64 in a thriller Saturday night to claim the CIF Southern Section Division 3A championship.

It was a championship that was won by a fraction of a second as a potential game-winning 3-pointer by Oakwood went in but was waved off by a referee for being released just after the buzzer.

“I was proud of our guys for never giving up,” McCloskey said. “Every timeout they were over there saying. ‘It’s OK. We got this. It’s OK. Let’s go. Don’t get down.’”

San Gabriel Academy’s positive attitude allowed it to lock in defensively for one final play to earn the championship.

Ethan McCloskey was fouled with 16.8 seconds left in the game. He lined up for a 1-and-1 free throw with San Gabriel Academy leading 66-64. He missed the first attempt and Oakwood rebounded and moved the ball past half court before calling a timeout with 10.9 seconds left.

The Owls in-bounded the ball to star Benjamin Eisdendrath, who scored a game-high 26 points. He dribbled toward the top of the key then back to the right wing where he was trapped by Mazin Lumori and Jayden Mojica.

He quickly turned back left and threw a long pass to the left baseline to Peyton Slaughter, who had already hit 4 of 6 3s. Slaughter grabbed the pass beyond the 3-point line and fired a shot that went in, but it was waved off by the officials because time had expired before the shot was released.

“No letdown,” said coach McCloskey of his team’s mindset on the last defensive stand. “We played through. We trapped (Oakwood). We made them throw a tough pass and no shot.”

“Obviously I’d like to think we got the shot off in time,” said Oakwood coach Steve Smith. “Then it would’ve been a Cinderella story. But the officials said we didn’t and that’s the Beauty and the Beast of sports, right? You got to deal with success and failure instantaneously.”

San Gabriel Academy (19-14) had success early in the game before struggling. The Eagles jumped out to a 15-7 lead in the first quarter thanks to hot shooting by Lumori, who finished with 14 points.

It looked like San Gabriel Academy was picking up where it left off in a 73-57 win over Bonita a week earlier in the semifinals.

However, Oakwood’s aggressive offense got the Eagles in foul trouble. Three starters, McCloskey, Marquise Humphreys and Lumori, sat for most of the end of the second quarter with two fouls each. That allowed the Owls to grab a 30-22 lead.

San Gabriel cut the deficit to 32-29 at halftime and even briefly took a 34-32 lead in the third quarter when Mojica scored on a layup following a steal. But Oakwood came storming back and took a 49-39 lead with 2:53 left in the third.