Despite not winning a league game in 12 years, Livermore accomplished something that it hadn’t done in a long time.

After beating ninth-seeded San Marin 71-61 at home on Tuesday night, the Cowboys advanced to the North Coast Section Division III quarterfinals. They will play top-seeded Branson on Friday at College of San Marin. According to Livermore coach Mike Tripp, it’s the first postseason win Livermore has had in over 30 years.

“The whole culture here has changed,” Tripp told the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday night. “The kids are believing in themselves.

“The East Bay Athletic League is a tough league, but I think it got us better for a game like tonight. I think it just battle-tested us.”

In Tripp’s first season as head coach after years of leading Washington-Fremont, Livermore has made a complete turnaround.

The Cowboys haven’t won more than 10 games since 2014. That same year, Livermore went to the NCS playoffs, but was bounced in the first round by Las Lomas. It was the Cowboys’ lone postseason appearance in the MaxPreps era, which started in 2004.

This season, Livermore won its first eight games and totaled 13 in nonleague play. While their EBAL winless streak continued, the Cowboys were much more competitive.

Livermore lost to California by five in overtime, were up on De La Salle by double digits in the first half and fell to Granada by just nine points.

Led by freshman forward Amari Chandler and juniors Dylan Wherry, Ct Harper and Erik Schock, the Cowboys have weathered the storm as a young team.

On Tuesday, Wherry led Livermore with 20 points, followed by Harper with 16 and Chandler with 13 and Shock with 12. Tripp said he couldn’t be happier with the response from the community.

“The stands were packed,” he said. “I had to laugh because one of the students yelled out, ‘Coach Tripp, you’re the G.O.A.T.’ It made me feel good and it’s a reflection of our situation.”

Livermore will have a tough test when it heads to the North Bay to face Branson, a team that was in the NCS Open Division last season.

Tripp is confident that the moment won’t be too big for his players.

“We got some players, so let’s step up to the challenge,” Tripp said. “If you’re prepared, you get your kids prepared the right way and you make them believe in themselves, we can beat anybody.”

O’DOWD: NEW FORMAT BRINGS STRONG OPINIONS >> The NCS’s new playoff format, which seeded teams based mostly on MaxPreps’ computer rankings, was supposed to create more competitive games. That wasn’t the case in Oakland on Tuesday night.

Bishop O’Dowd routed American 72-33 in a game that was 43-8 at halftime, with the No. 2 seed in Division I looking every bit like an Open Division squad. Madison Gordon had six blocks and Simdi Chukwu led O’Dowd in scoring with 17 points.

“I’m not sure what they were doing with the seeding, and what was the rationale,” longtime O’Dowd coach Malik McCord said, with his solution being, “Don’t depend on the computer, because that’s not working.”

American coach Keith Ramee agreed, noting that he was unsure about what criteria MaxPreps used to judge teams. His Eagles, led by sophomore scoring sensation Shirina Shi, finished fourth in the Mission Valley Athletic League.

“There’s a lot of teams that I thought we could have played, and if you had asked me a week ago, Bishop O’Dowd was not on that list of teams,” Ramee said.

YGNACIO VALLEY: ONE WIN DOWN, DOUGHERTY VALLEY NEXT >> For Ygnacio Valley, it’s all about controlled chaos.

The goal for the Wolves is to make their opponents tired and uncomfortable with their full-court press and aggressive attacks to the basket.

On Tuesday, the strategy worked to a tee.

In a back-and-forth game, eighth-seeded Ygnacio Valley defeated No. 9 Monte Vista 57-54 at home to advance to the North Coast Section Division I quarterfinals.

Antonio Kellogg Jr. scored a game-high 27 points for YV and grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman Jaelyn Cox added nine points and five rebounds and senior point guard Jalan Cody had seven points and eight rebounds.

The win sets up a matchup on Friday at top-seeded Dougherty Valley and star forward Jalen Stokes.

“We’ve been playing against Stokes for a while, so we know him. We’re not scared of him,” YV coach Michael Woolridge said. “We’re going to take on a big school. We’ve played in big games. ... We’re going to be ready for it.”

BERKELEY: GRIND DOESN’T STOP AHEAD OF MATCHUP WITH ST. JOE’S >> Berkeley breathed easily on Tuesday night in the first round of the NCS playoffs, routing Eureka 71-43 at home.

Now, the Yellowjackets will face former West Alameda County Conference foe St. Joseph-Notre Dame in the quarterfinals.

A stress-free blowout meant that Berkeley coach Mike Hudson was able to get an early start breaking down St. Joe’s film.

“I don’t know too much about St Joe’s,” Hudson admitted. “They used to be in our league last year, but they switched leagues. But they seem like a really good team. They’ve won 20 games, so it’s going to be another tough matchup for us.”

Hudson said he wanted to watch one game St. Joseph lost and another that it won to broaden his scouting report. He planeed to share it with his players starting at practice on Wednesday.

“I actually already have film on them,” Hudson said. I’m always anticipating. I’m trying to do our work early. So I’ll be watching a lot more, because I was kind of focused on Eureka this week.”

MT. EDEN: MONARCHS PULL OFF UPSET >> Mt. Eden can score in bunches, but on Tuesday the goal was to slow the game down against a very athletic Cornerstone Christian team.

The strategy worked to perfection as 14th-seeded Mt. Eden upset No. 3 Cornerstone Christian at home 56-38 to advance to the NCS Division III quarterfinals.

“They’re super athletic, so our goal was to make sure we control the pace and that’s what we did,” coach Sunny Aujla told the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday night.

According to Aulja, Mt. Eden used a zone and waited until the final seconds of the shot clock to shoot the ball. The result was the Hayward school kept Cornerstone’s high-scoring attack in check all night.

Cornerstone made sure to key in on Mt. Eden’s top scorer, Johnson Tran, but the senior found ways to get his teammates involved.

Lorenzo Matienzo had a game-high 12 points and sophomore Cash Gonzales totaled 11.

Mt. Eden will play No. 5 San Rafael in the next round on Friday.

“The players know we’re not done,” Aulja said. “They understand that we have to stay humble. This is just one game and the next game really gives us a chance to advance in multiple ways.”

NORTHGATE: THREE IN A ROW >> Before his team defeated No. 3 Campolindo 57-54 in the Division I playoffs on Tuesday, Northgate coach Brian McCoy got right to the point when addressing his 14th-seeded Broncos in a pregame message.

“Here’s a team we’ve already beaten two times, and they still get the 3 seed,” McCoy said. “So wouldn’t it be nice to knock them off again and move forward?

Northgate (20-9) pulled off one of the upsets of the night, at least in seeding, by staging a fourth-quarter comeback to take down traditional power Campo (19-9) in Moraga. Brady Gray made five 3-pointers and David Harris gave Northgate a three-point cushion with a breakaway layup with eight seconds left.

Up next is No. 6 Amador Valley on Friday, which knocked off Bishop O’Dowd in Pleasanton.

“We like those gritty games, and being the underdog is a great motivator,” McCoy said.

Editor’s note: The Central Coast Section basketball playoffs start Friday.