LIVERMORE — After taking charge early, things seemed to be slipping away from host Granada High in their Northern California Division I playoff game Tuesday night against Inderkum.
The Matadors, winners of the NorCal Division I title a year ago, had led from the outset. But their leading scorer, Cortavious Taylor, was on the bench with four fouls and the Tigers of the Sac-Joaquin Section came charging back in the third quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, Inderkum finally had the lead at 42-41 on two free throws from Malik Johnson. They were up 45-43 after a 3-point basket from Sincere Hudson with 5:50 remaining.
It was then that the fourth-seeded Matadors summoned whatever it is that comes from going through the gauntlet that is the East Bay Athletic League, reasserted themselves, and prevailed 58-53 to move into the second round Thursday against St. Ignatius, a 67-51 winner over Rocklin.
“The EBAL is one of the best leagues in California,” Taylor said after scoring a game-high 22 points. “It gets us ready for stuff like this.”
Granada improved to 24-4, with Inderkum finishing its season at 23-8.
A year ago, the Matadors won the NorCal D-1 title. They had Andrew McKeever, a 7-foot center who is a St. Mary’s redshirt and was on hand to cheer on his former teammates. They had Tyler Harris, who went to play at Portland.
Yet anyone who thought the Matadors weren’t up to the EBAL experience without them were sorely mistaken.
“Everybody thinks we were successful because we had Andrew and Tyler and those guys are a big part of our family,” Granada coach Quaran Johnson said. “They’re a part of our history, a big part of what we became. But it’s not all we were. We had integral pieces from last year. We wouldn’t have gotten there without them. They brought that culture, that fire, that mentality to this year.
“Put everybody together, and it still worked.”
Spencer Langowski added 14 points for Granada, with NaVaughn Long adding 10 and Lennon Lomba eight. For Inderkum, Malik Johnson had 16 points — all in the second half and in the paint — with Jeremiah Butler scoring 12 and Sincere Hudson and Taylen Goodman 10 each.
Granada jumped to a 21-9 first-quarter lead and was up 30-18 at halftime. When the third quarter began, the Tigers were late getting out of their locker room and had no chance to warm up. Whatever coach Fred Wilson said to them resonated, because Inderkum dominated the third quarter — which included a fourth foul with 5:16 left in the third quarter against Taylor.
Taylor, who returned to the game in the fourth quarter a foul away from disqualification, answered Inderkum’s last lead at 45-43 with a 3-pointer with 5:33 left, and that was followed by another baseline 3-pointer from Langowski for a 49-45 lead.
Inderkum kept fighting, but never got closer than two points the rest of the way.
Granada, which has been battling with the likes of De La Salle, San Ramon Valley and Dublin during the league season, pushed the margin to 57-51 on a drive from Lennon and a reverse layup from Taylor with 31.3 seconds left.
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“We’ve been there before,” Johnson said. “We were a quarter away from being undefeated in our league. Having to battle through that for a month and a half helps in moments like this. We expected them to make a run. I told my guys to compete, maintain their composure, stay solid and things will work themselves out. We’re too good of a team to let it end like that.”
Taylor said he stayed in the fray mentally while on the bench with four fouls and said he wasn’t worried even when Inderkum finally got the lead in the fourth quarter.
“I wasn’t concerned. I knew we were good,” Taylor said. “Most people thought we wouldn’t be that good this year because we lost a lot of good players, but we’ve always thought this was possible.”
