DANVILLE >> In a battle between two East Bay powerhouses, 32 minutes wasn’t enough to decide a victor.

With a NorCal Division I title game appearance on the line, last year’s Division II state champion Oakland Tech and Division I state runner-up San Ramon Valley fought to the very end. The result was one of the best NorCal playoff games the Bay Area has seen.

But something had to give.

After SRV senior Elliot Conley swished a go-ahead 3-pointer with three seconds left in overtime, the game looked all but won for the Wolves as Tech had to go the length of the floor to tie the game. But in classic Tech fashion, senior ArDarius Grayson found a sliver of daylight near the halfcourt line and heaved a 40-footer with two defenders draped on him.

Grayson’s shot bounced off the backboard, rolled around the rim and ... just bounced out as SRV escaped with a 77-74 win at home.

The Wolves advanced to their second consecutive NorCal Division I final. They will travel to the Central Valley to play Lincoln-Stockton for the right to go to the state championship game.

“This was a heavyweight battle between a defending state champion and a team that made the state championship last year,” SRV coach Brian Botteen said. “What a great atmosphere this was.”

UC Irvine-bound senior Luke Isaak led SRV with 33 points and 14 rebounds. Thomas Conley and Mason Thomas each had 15 points.

In a valiant effort, Grayson led all scorers with 36 points and added nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals and four blocks.

“ArDarius Grayson has been nothing short of exceptional. He’s spectacular, man,” Tech coach Karega Hart said. “He’s been one of the hardest workers I ever coached.”

Two days after dropping 37 points on Liberty in the previous round, Isaak picked up right where he left off.

He scored nine points in the first quarter and totaled 14 for the half.

SRV controlled the game for most of the first three quarters and led by as much as 14 in the third period.

But Tech just wouldn’t go away.

A 7-2 run to start the fourth quarter got the Bulldogs to within five. After surrendering a 5-0 flurry, Tech scored eight unanswered, ending on an acrobatic finish from Grayson that tied the game at 64 with 1:24 left.

Grayson willed his team back into the game as he scored or assisted on each of Tech’s 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“We just tried to slow him down and he was still getting his buckets,” Thomas said of Grayson. “We got to give him credit.”

Grayson made two free throws with just over 40 seconds left to tie the game at 66 and send it to overtime.

A second overtime seemed imminent as the teams went back and forth. As SRV got a crucial stop with just under 15 seconds left, Isaak found Elliot Conley in transition.

Conley, who had scored just three points to that point, jabbed toward the paint to move a Tech defender back and rose up to shoot the jumper behind the arc.

Swish.

“I knew it was money right when I let it go,” Conley said.

Tech turned to Grayson one last time with seconds on the clock, and his shot just missed. With two defenders on him, he somehow got the ball in the air as it ricocheted off the backboard, spun around the cylinder and rimmed out.

For SRV, a sigh of relief followed by a feeling of joy.

“I thought we were looking at double overtime,” Botteen said.

For Tech, the emotions started to show quickly when the clock hit zeroes. The tears flowed for both Tech players and fans as the Bulldogs’ season came to an end.

Grayson won a state title as a junior and was an integral piece of Tech’s dominance since he was a freshman.

“We made it far,” Grayson said. “We lost in the third round on a shot that rimmed out for me, but I’m proud of our team and proud of how far we came.”

SRV will now turn its attention to Lincoln, which beat the Wolves on an overtime buzzer beater to open the season.

“I think it’s fitting that the NorCal season started with us and them and it will end with us and them,” Botteen said. “We couldn’t ask for a better opponent.”