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LIVERMORE — Being that he’s the tallest player on the Amador Valley boys basketball team, Will Sadler is not the kind of person you would lose in a crowd.
But Friday night, the 6-foot-5 junior kind of sounded like the kid at the back of the line shouting, “Hey, don’t forget about us!”
Amador Valley had just beaten Granada 45-43 in an East Bay Athletic League Valley Division matchup, and Sadler wanted everyone to know the Dons would be a team to be reckoned with in the North Coast Section playoffs that start Feb. 18.
“We want a good run, we want to take out some good teams,” Sadler said after scoring a team-high 11 points in the win. “We’re hanging with some good teams, so we can put up a challenge to these good teams, make a push in the playoffs.”
The Dons improved to 15-9 overall and 6-5 in the EBAL Valley. With only two games left in the regular season, they won’t be able to catch both Granada and Dublin, the two teams ahead of them in the division. Dublin is 8-3 and has a one-game lead over Granada (20-4, 7-4).
Amador Valley’s win Friday night was an upset, but only a mild one. The Dons beat Granada by 11 points earlier in the season.
But this was clearly an upsetting defeat for Granada, the No. 15 team in the Bay Area Preps HQ Top 25. Under second-year coach Quaran Johnson, the Matadors are having their best season in the MaxPreps era that began in 2004-05.
Ah, but the silver lining. Even with the defeat, Granada can still win the Valley and play Dougherty Valley for the EBAL championship next Saturday. All it has to do is win at Dublin on Tuesday night. The Matadors beat Dublin by two earlier in the season.
“Dublin on Tuesday is not the most opportune time to play them,” Johnson said. “We’ll be coming off a loss and we won’t have a lot of time to practice, rebuild and rest.”
No matter what happens to Granada against Dublin, the Matadors should get a nice seed in Division I of the NCS playoffs. What’s not likely to happen, however, is a berth in the six-team NCS Open Division unless the Mats knock off Dublin.
Granada had plenty of momentum coming into the game against Amador Valley. It had won three in a row, including its first-ever victory over De La Salle and a road win at Monte Vista.
The Matadors were in control in the first half. They never trailed and led 27-18 late in the second quarter on a bucket by Mateo Wilde.
Amador Valley tallied the last five points of the first half on a basket and three free throws by Sadler. Then it outscored Granada 18-3 to start the second half, including 13-2 in the third quarter. Add in the five points by Sadler to finish the first half, and Amador Valley had a 23-3 run that extended over three quarters.
Game!
“We tried to get more up-tempo against their press,” Dons coach Adam Sax said. “We wanted to attack it, get some better shot selection, get inside a little bit and open up our three-point shooters.”
Amador Valley took its biggest lead at 41-30 early in the fourth quarter, but Granada fought back. After Sadler scored the Dons’ final points to make it 45-38, Granada chipped away with three points at the line and a basket by Luke Moylan.
But what derailed the Granada comeback was 11 missed free throws, three as the clock ticked down in the final two minutes.
“We couldn’t get our shots to fall, we couldn’t make our free throws,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to win when you can’t put the ball in the basket. We got good looks. The shots just didn’t fall.”
Kevin Gad had 11 points for Granada and Wilde added eight. Isaac Owen was second in scoring for Amador Valley with nine points.