So close! The King’s Academy’s miraculous comeback bid falls short as Knights lose to San Gabriel Academy in D3 state title game
SACRAMENTO — As Karan Kolappa laid the ball into the basket, there was a burst of excitement from the large The King’s Academy student section at Golden 1 Center.
The TKA senior cut the San Gabriel Academy lead to just one point after the Knights trailed by as much as 10 with just under a minute left in the game. A jubilated TKA bench cheered as it looked like the Knights were on the verge of something special at the end of Friday’s game.
That excitement was short-lived.
Once the ball went through the net, the buzzer sounded and the red lights flashed onto the NBA backboard. The loud cheers turned quickly into silence as SGA rushed to center court to celebrate its state title win.
While the effort was valiant, time was not on TKA’s side.
SGA, which led by as much as 15 in the second half and 10 with just over two minutes left, escaped with a 52-51 win to capture the CIF Division III state title despite a furious TKA comeback in the final moments of the game.
“All year, they’ve been battling. Anything we’ve asked them to do, they go forward with it,” TKA coach Cameron Bradford said. “Today we were struggling from the field and we could have put our head down and gave up, but they kept fighting and they kept going.
“It’s a testament to their mental toughness and their character. They just kept battling even when things didn’t go our way. … I couldn’t be more proud to be their coach.”
TKA junior Claxton Ladine led the Knights with 13 points and knocked down four 3-pointers in the process. Kolappa had 12 points and four steals and junior guard Xavier Barnett totaled 11 points after spraining his ankle in the first minute of play.
SGA came into Friday’s championship game with a clear size advantage. While being a relatively tall team during the NorCal playoffs, TKA’s lineup was dwarfed by the SGA’s sophomore tandem of 6-foot-11 Mahamadou Diop and 6-8 Mohamed Toure.
Diop, a four-star recruit, scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked seven shots.
“I felt like seeing them in person was definitely a shock,” said TKA freshman sensation Boss Mhoon, who finished with nine points and five rebounds. “On film they look big, but seeing them in real life they were just long and huge.”
After trailing by just two points after the game’s first eight minutes, TKA went cold in the second quarter.
SGA opened the period on a 10-2 run, prompting Bradford to call a timeout. The Knights went three and a half minutes without registering a point and did not make a field goal until the 3:30 mark of the first half.
Meanwhile, SGA pounded the Knights’ defense from the inside. The Eagles played through Diop, who occupied two defenders any time he touched the ball. Diop scored 10 of his 20 points in the first two quarters.
SGA took a 31-17 lead at halftime as the SoCal school out-rebounded TKA 23-15 in the first half while holding TKA to 20% shooting from the field.
The Knights’ cold shooting continued into the third quarter as the SGA’s athleticism continued to disrupt the usually free flowing TKA offense. A right-corner 3 from Xavier Wang gave SGA a 36-21 lead early in the second half.
But the Knights flipped the script to end the quarter strong.
After Wang’s 3, TKA went on a 11-0 run to end the period and trailed by just four going into the final eight minutes of play.
Even with their big run, the Knights fell behind once again as Diop took over in the fourth quarter. Diop scored 10 points throughout the first six minutes of the period, capped off by a powerful fastbreak slam that made the score 50-40 with just over two minutes left in the game.
Seemingly out of options, any hope of another comeback looked bleak for TKA. All the Eagles had to do was take care of the ball and let the clock run out.
That didn’t happen.
TKA turned up the pressure with a trapping full court press that forced numerous turnovers in the final two minutes. The Knights went to the free throw line eight times and made six free throws in that span.
A fading Ladine 3 with under 20 seconds remaining cut the SGA lead to one. Two made free throws from Wang made it a three-point game with 12 seconds left, giving the Knights one shot to tie the game.
On the ensuing possession, Ladine got a clean look at a left wing 3 but an illegal screen was called on TKA before the junior could get a shot up. The call was controversial as the TKA bench was up in arms with many fans booing after seeing the replay.
When asked if he was able to get an explanation from the officiating crew, Bradford said, “Not really. He just said he was moving.”
Kolappa got his steal and score on the next possession, but by then it was too late.
“I lost five years of my life in 15 seconds,” SGA coach Daniel Piepoli said. “That was a tough one.”
The pain of defeat was evident on the faces of TKA following the loss.
During TKA’s postgame press conference, Bradford and many of his players struggled to put into words what this season meant to them. The Sunnyvale school had its best season in school history, winning the West Bay Athletic League title and both the Central Coast Section Division IV and NorCal Division III titles.
The Knights will graduate just three seniors this year, including Kolappa and WBAL Player of the Year Caedmon Dickson. But Mhoon, Barnett and Ladine are all slated to come back next year to build off a year to remember for TKA.
“Since my freshman year coming to TKA, we had some great seasons and won some championships,” Dickson said. “It’s going to be up to the next guys to keep it going and I’m sure they will.”