‘I was not losing’: Granada holds off Livermore in jam-packed rivalry game

LIVERMORE — Damien Miles didn’t sleep much Thursday night. 

Not with the whole city circling one date on the calendar. Not with 23 straight wins over Livermore hanging in the air like a dare. Not with the pressure of continuing a 12-year run of dominance over the Matadors’ rival school. 

So when the gym hit max capacity, fans got turned away and the noise turned into a roar. Miles and Granada played like a team who had been awake for hours waiting to finally exhale. 

The result: A comfortable 64-56 win over the Cowboys on Friday night that looked more dominant than the final score would tell. 

“I slept on it. I dreamed about it. I was not losing this game,” Miles, who is also a wide receiver on the football team, said. “I promised everybody I knew that I was not losing this game. We lost to them in football and I was not going to lose to them in basketball.”   

The annual crosstown showdown is a city tradition that rarely cares about standings, but this one came with extra juice. Livermore entered in the middle of a resurgence season after stunning De La Salle on Wednesday and snapping a 12-year East Bay Athletic League losing streak earlier this season. 

And it showed, even after Granada built a 20-point lead in the third quarter. The Cowboys stormed back to cut the deficit to seven in the final eight minutes as trash talk and physical play simmered throughout and Granada’s student section chanting “Who’s your daddy” at its peak. 

Still, when the final horn sounded, the intensity gave way to handshakes and hugs — the kind that only happens after two rivals empty the tank.

“This is a good team, this is not the Livermore of old,” Granada coach Quaran Johnson Sr. said. “To go out there, not only to win, but to win in the fashion that we did, I feel like it’s a testament to who we’re becoming and hopefully who you’ll see in the playoffs.” 

The win combined with other stunning EBAL results on Friday has created a five-team tie for third place as Monte Vista, California, Amador Valley and Dublin along with Granada all have five league wins. A determination on which teams will make the four-team EBAL tournament is set to come tomorrow, a league source told the Bay Area News Group. De La Salle will be the No. 1 seed and Dougherty Valley is locked at second.  

Brandon Hahn led Granada with 18 points and 19 rebounds. Miles had 16 points and eight rebounds while Quaran Johnson Jr. had 14 points. 

Livermore sophomore standout Amare Chandler had a game-high 27 points and grabbed six rebounds. 

After a first quarter that saw both teams combine for nine points, Granada found its groove behind a rowdy home crowd in the second quarter. 

Johnson Jr. hit three 3-pointers in the period and controlled the pace for the Matadors as they went into halftime with a 28-16 lead. 

With a 12-point lead, Granada seemingly blew the game open in the third quarter. A 15-7 run, capped off by a putback from Hahn, gave Granada a 43-23 lead – its biggest of the night. 

As Granada’s lead widened, the student section’s chants got louder. With every made basket, came an opportunity for Granada’s student fans to poke fun at their rival school. 

But Livermore wasn’t done yet. 

The Cowboys opened the fourth quarter with a 13-6 run, 11 of which were scored by Chandler, to cut the deficit to just eight. 

Later in the quarter, Chandler trimmed Granada’s advantage to seven when he banked in an NBA-range 3-pointer while getting fouled. 

But that’s as close as Livermore would get. 

A furious fast break dunk with Cordell Taylor with under two minutes left took the momentum out of Livermore’s run. With Livermore needing to foul, Granada hit all of its free throws down the stretch to seal a solid victory on senior night. 

“I feel like we just worked hard for this,” Taylor said. “We knew what we had to do to get this done.” 

Livermore coach Mike Tripp said he believes his team dug itself a big hole early, and despite a solid effort, couldn’t recover in time, especially in front of a rowdy home crowd. 

But the longtime East Bay basketball coach acknowledged the importance of this game to the city and the strides Livermore made this year to make it a competitive contest. 

“I don’t think records matter going into this game. I mean, it’s always a dogfight,” Tripp said. “But these guys know each other. They’ll hang out after the game.”