HUNTINGTON BEACH – Marina’s boys basketball team had a 24-point lead in the third quarter.
It turned out the Vikings needed all of it.
Marina withstood a big fourth-quarter rally by San Gabriel Academy to get a 63-58 win Saturday in a CIF Southern Section Division 2A semifinal at Marina High.
The Vikings (25-7) will play Long Beach Poly (24-8) in the 2A championship Friday or Saturday. The CIF-SS will announce dates, times and locations of its boys and girls championship games Monday.
San Gabriel Academy (21-10), like all CIF-SS semifinalists, qualified for the CIF Southern California Regional playoffs that begin Feb. 27.
Marina’s boys basketball program is 0-4 in CIF-SS finals. Its most recent finals appearance was in 2021.
The Vikings had a 49-25 lead late in the third quarter and carried a 53-35 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We attacked (offensively) in the first half,” said Marina junior point guard Barak Simon. “We were up 20. And then (San Gabriel Academy) started pressing.
“We kind of tried to hold the lead instead of get the win.”
San Gabriel Academy’s 6-10 freshman, Mahamadou Diop, and 6-6 senior Bamba Kossi led the Eagles’ rally that included a 15-2 run where SGA finally took advantage of its height and length advantages inside.
Marina’s lead was reduced to 55-50 halfway through the fourth quarter.
Simon rescued the Vikings. He made an 8-foot jumper in the lane to nudge the lead to 57-50 with 2:16 remaining. Simon made six free throws in the final 90 seconds to secure the win.
Vikings junior point guard Barak Simon scored 23 points. Junior guards Mark Yeager and Dylan Gomez scored 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Bamba Kossi, a 6-6 senior guard, led San Gabriel Academy with 14 points. Eagles sophomore guard Mo Traore scored 13 points.
Baskets made in the first half sometimes become important in the final moments of a game’s second half. That was true Saturday.
Simon made a 3-pointer with five seconds left in the second quarter and Gomez stole the ensuing inbounds pass and quickly released a successful layup, giving Marina a 40-17 lead at halftime.
“That ‘two’ at halftime became a little bigger later,” said Marina coach Nick Racklin.
Marina started fast, taking an 11-4 lead in the first quarter. The Vikings made seven 3-pointers in the first half, four by Simon, two by Yeager and one by Nick Pratali.
It was the second consecutive close win in the playoffs for Marina. The Vikings beat Cypress 57-55 in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
Racklin noted that Marina played in many tight games during the season, including in the Wave League in which the Vikings and Corona del Mar were co-champions. Corona del Mar lost to Long Beach Poly on Friday in the other 2A semifinal.
“Our league has set us up for this,” Racklin said. “How many two-point game, three-point games, four-point games were we in? Up two (points), down two … we’ve been in these situations all year.”
The CIF-SS Open Division finals will be played Friday at Cal Baptist University in Riverside.
Other finals will be played at Azusa Pacific University, Toyota Arena in Ontario, Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Colony High in Ontario.