The voyage through uncharted waters continues for the Milpitas basketball team.

The Trojans not only reached the state playoffs for the first time, but advanced Tuesday with a thrilling, white-knuckler of a 68-67 overtime win over Woodcreek in front of a packed house on campus.

And now Milpitas (24-4), the NorCal No. 2 seed in Division II, will get to play a quarterfinal game at home tonight against seventh-seeded Clovis East.

Unprecedented stuff.

“We’re just trying to put Milpitas on the map in terms of basketball,” said 6-foot-6 senior Jacob Wrencher, who led the way Tuesday with 22 points.

It was a game of multiple ebbs and flows. Milpitas led by eight early, Woodcreek went up by nine in the second quarter, Milpitas closed the third quarter on an 11-2 burst to turn a five-point deficit into a four-point lead.

The Trojans maintained the lead throughout the fourth quarter until Woodcreek’s Zach Bualat hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left to tie it up 63-63.

Milpitas had a chance to take the last shot and get the win, but was unable to get a shot off on that final possession.

But instead of momentum swinging to Woodcreek in overtime, Milpitas shrugged off the empty possession at the end of regulation and scored the first five points of OT, on a 3-pointer by point guard Jordan North and a bucket on a drive by Wrencher.

— Glenn Reeves

PIEDMONT GIRLS ROUT OAKLAND TECH >> The twin towers of Oakland Tech have been taken down — by a 5-foot-6 freshman point guard.

Janelle Solis, Piedmont’s phenom floor general, had a slingshot for each of them as the Highlanders went into the Bulldogs’ gym and left with a 60-29 victory in the first round of the CIF NorCal girls basketball regional.

Solis’ 12 points don’t begin to illustrate her impact. Her ball handling and playmaking had No. 9 seed Piedmont rolling from the opening tip. The eighth-seeded Bulldogs never found their footing.

“She’s better than advertised,” Oakland Tech coach Leroy Hurt said.

Tech’s duo of junior bigs, Jhai Johnson and Terri’A Russell, had little impact despite their significant size advantage. Johnson got in early foul trouble, but Hurt left her in, hoping the Bulldogs would settle down.

But she picked up her fourth foul with five minutes left in the second quarter. The hosts were down 24 when she sat. Johnson finished with six points.

Without their best player cooking, Oakland Tech went down hard. The Bulldogs won nine games by at least 30 points this season. But Piedmont flipped the script.

Making the night even sweeter for the Highlanders: they get a home game now. That’s because No. 16 San Joaquin Memorial upset top-seeded Folsom. So Piedmont will host San Joaquin Memorial tonight for a spot in the NorCal semifinals.

— Devin Bradshaw

SRV BOYS OVERCOME EARLY ADVERSITY >> Just an hour before tipoff, SRV got news that its star point guard Mason Thomas had a 102-degree fever.

Thomas still suited up and gave the Wolves all he could, but the Danville school needed to find a way to win Tuesday’s game against Fresno powerhouse San Joaquin Memorial without Thomas at 100%.

SRV found a way.

The Wolves won 61-56 behind a full team effort.

“It was impressive to see guys understand when the season is on the line, you have to be able to do your job,” SRV coach Brian Botteen said.

SRV will host a home game tonight, but not in its own gym as the Wolves will play No. 13 Liberty at Monte Vista High because of a scheduling conflict.

— Nathan Canilao

CARONDELET GIRLS EDGE ST. FRANCIS >> This time of year, seeds can be deceiving. No. 14 St. Francis and No. 3 Carondelet battled in Concord on Tuesday, and the hometown Cougars did just enough to survive and advance, winning 62-57.

The Lancers (18-10) found themselves in an 18-9 hole after one quarter and down 39-24 at the half. But they rallied in the second half, winning the final two frames 18-13 and 15-10.

The huge comeback attempt just ran out of time. Sophie Holmes led St. Francis with 20 points, followed by Maia Jimenez with 11.

Carondelet (26-6) was paced by Celeste Alvarez’s 18 points.

— Christian Babcock

OAKLAND BOYS TAKE COMMAND AFTER SLOW START >> Oakland High didn’t even need the first quarter at Valley Christian.

The 13th-seeded team in the CIF NorCal Division II bracket trailed No. 4 Valley 16-4 after the first eight minutes in San Jose.

The next 24 minutes rendered the result of the opening frame meaningless. Oakland owned the remainder of the contest, cutting the deficit to six by halftime and taking the lead midway through the third quarter.

The Wildcats never trailed again, and on the strength of their overall excellence, they stretched the advantage further and took a no-doubt 59-45 win back home to the East Bay.

Oakland relied on a balanced scoring effort to come from behind and take the lead for good. Khaleed Odumuyiwa led the Wildcats with 12 points, followed closely by Rohm Neal with 11. Oakland will travel to Destiny Christian-Sacramento tonight.

– Christian Babcock

TKA BOYS KEEP ROLLING >> When The King’s Academy has it going, the Knights are hard to stop. Pleasant Valley found out the hard way as top-seeded TKA crushed the Chico school 68-47 to advance to the second round of the NorCal Division III playoffs.

“We’re tough to guard,” TKA coach Cameron Bradford said. “On any given night, one of the guys can go get 20.”

Caedmon Dickson had a game-high 16 points and junior Xavier Barnett totaled 14.

TKA will have homecourt throughout the NorCal playoffs. The Knights host No. 9 Aptos tonight.

“We’re just going to stay locked in and take it one day at a time,” Bradford said.

— Nathan Canilao

GRAYSON LEADS OAKLAND TECH PAST REDWOOD >> Redwood’s Semetri Carr, headed on a Division I scholarship to Cal, lived up to his hype with 38 points at Oakland Tech. But Ardarius Grayson came out on top in Tuesday’s showdown of talented point guards.

Grayson spearheaded an all-around attack as Oakland Tech chopped down the Redwood Giants 71-57 in Round 1 of the CIF NorCal Division I regional. Grayson finished with 16 points, 13 of which came in the second quarter. He forced Redwood to double-team him, which opened up looks for his teammates. He also defended Carr well, forcing Redwood’s star to get Grayson off of him with screens.

Oakland Tech coach Karega Hart praised his leader’s ability to control the game by not just scoring. Grayson finished with nine assists.

“Ardarius played tough,” Hart said.

The Bulldogs head to Sacramento to face No. 1-seeded Inderkum (21-2) in the second round tonight.

— Devin Bradshaw

Mitty boys edge Branson >> On paper, there wasn’t a huge gap between No. 6 seed Archbishop Mitty and No. 11 Branson in this Division II matchup, and that proved to be the case.

The Monarchs eked out a close one over the visiting Bulls, winning 59-55. The nip-and-tuck win kept Mitty (15-13) above .500 this season.

Grayson Jalal (23) and Caeden Hutcherson (17) were the leading scorers for the Monarchs.

Mitty travels to Jesuit-Carmichael tonight.

— Christian Babcock

CALIFORNIA GIRLS MAKE QUICK WORK OF LOS GATOS >> The Grizzlies took care of visiting Los Gatos early to cruise into the second round Division II playoffs with a 58-40 victory.

California took a 20-7 lead in the first quarter and didn’t look back as Trinity Chu scored a game-high 19 points to lead the San Ramon school.

The Grizzlies will host Redwood tonight.

— Nathan Canilao