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 (20-13) advances to Friday’s state championship game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. SGA will take on The King’s 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 layup at the buzzer to make it a five-point game heading to the fourth.

And they kept coming.

Maranatha’s Chris Smith, who had 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.

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.

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 its 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, SGA also boasted 6-foot-8 sophomore Mahamed Toure, who finished with nine points and six rebounds.