San Ramon Valley is seeded third in the North Coast Section Open Division girls basketball playoffs.
But because the Wolves didn’t win their league, they had to travel to Brentwood on Thursday night to play sixth-seeded Heritage, the champion of the Bay Valley Athletic League.
The NCS bylaw didn’t keep the visitors from advancing.
After a tight first half, San Ramon Valley eventually broke it open for a 63-45 victory that moved the Wolves into a semifinal matchup Wednesday against second-seeded Salesian.
Sierra Chambers scored 21 points and Natalie Pasco added 18 points to lead SRV, which was coming off a loss to Carondelet on Saturday in the East Bay Athletic League championship game.
Kendall McClure had 12 points and Zeni Purge and Amanda Muse each scored 10 points for Heritage.
After the teams played to a 15-15 draw through one quarter, SRV led 28-27 at halftime and 44-37 after the third quarter.
In the other first-round Open Division game, fifth-seeded Bishop O’Dowd went to Santa Rosa and beat fourth-seeded Cardinal News 58-54.
The Dragons advanced to play Wednesday at top-seeded Carondelet in the semifinals.
