SOUTH PASADENA — The South Pasadena boys basketball team was fortunate to hold a two-point lead over La Cañada at halftime Wednesday night, because the Tigers’ Jack Madison got in early foul trouble and was held scoreless.

But Madison couldn’t be held back in the second half, scoring 15 of his game-high 20 points in the third quarter to help South Pasadena pull away for a 63-59 victory in the Rio Hondo League.

“I’m the leader of this team, I had to come out and bring energy on defense and offense,” said Madison, who also had six rebounds with a steal and a block. “I try to stay out of foul trouble every game, but when I’m hot I’m trying to score. We have a lot of scorers on this team though, any of us could go for 20.”

South Pasadena coach Ernest Baskerville wasn’t surprised.

“He’s our engine, he’s what makes us go,” Baskerville said of Madison. ” We got the opportunity to get him the ball a lot, and he capitalized on that.”

South Pasadena (15-7, 5-1) beat out La Cañada for the Rio Hondo League title — its first league title in 39 years — last season. This season South Pasadena swept its two league games against La Cañada (18-5, 4-2) for the first time in decades. The Tigers beat the Spartans 60-49 on Monday.

“When we won the game Monday, we were already excited,” Baskerville said. “It’s my sixth season here, and we never beat them at home. We’ve lost at the buzzer or by a couple points every time. But Monday’s game gave us a little energy to try to get this game and we were successful.”

South Pasadena’s Oni Balogun finished with nine points and Sebastian Martinez and Jacob Arias scored eight points apiece.

La Cañada’s Maddox Freeman finished with a team-high 19 points and his 3-pointer with 9.9 seconds left cut the Tigers’ lead to 61-59.

But South Pasadena’s Miles Nole, who finished with seven points, hit two clutch free throws with six seconds left to close it out.

The Spartans’ Harrison Schloessmann and Julian Morillo finished with 12 points apiece.

South Pasadena’s lone loss in league was to Blair (12-7, 5-0), which leads the Rio Hondo League. South Pasadena will get a rematch with Blair on Sunday at 7 p.m. Because the recent wildfires forced many local games to be postponed, the CIF State office suspended its rule against Sunday games so that teams would have more opportunities to play those games.

“This league is a dogfight every night because we all know each other,” Baskerville said.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

La Cañada 46, South Pasadena 39: After South Pasadena knocked off La Cañada by 27 points on Monday, winning 65-38, it looked like the Tigers would go on to finish undefeated in the Rio Hondo League for a third straight season.

But La Cañada, which played South Pasadena to a two-point loss during a tournament earlier this season, jumped on top of the Tigers early and held on down the stretch to pull out the win, ending the Tigers’ 27-game league winning streak.

Jennifer Musso scored 11 of her game-high 15 points in the second half and Malia Harney finished with 13 points for the Spartans (17-6, 5-1), who are now tied with the Tigers (15-6, 6-1) in the loss column in the league standings.

It was the first time in four years that La Cañada knocked off South Pasadena. They limited the Tigers’ big scorer, Kayla Boozer, to just 18 points. Boozer came in averaging 28 points with 14 rebounds.