Clovis’ Brian Pierson guards Valley’s Patrick Holmes during Tuesday’s game in the Southwest Dairy Farmers Classic.

Clovis’ Jay Crockett and Arthur Calbert battle Valley’s defense for a rebound Tuesday in the first half of the game in the Southwest Dairy Farmers Classic.

Sometimes a basketball coach might feign a little extra anger to draw a technical foul, hoping to spur the team. However, Valley’s Joe Coleman didn’t have to fake it on Tuesday.

In the semifinals of the Southwest Dairy Farmers Classic against Clovis, the Vikings’ head man furiously protested a play in which Wildcats standout Jaye Crockett slammed the backboard on an attempted layup by Valley junior Michael Maya.

The call, or the technical that ensued, didn’t go the Vikes’ way, but that was the turning point as Valley went on to a 59-52 victory to keep Clovis out of the championship of its own tournament.

“I was really mad,” Coleman said. “I wasn’t trying to pump anybody up. I was upset, but apparently that’s a rule somewhere — that’s what they told me — so you just go with it. But I saw our kids come together a little bit right there.”

With Clovis up 39-38 after the sequence at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Valley (9-3) scored 10 of the next 13 points to lead 48-42. The Vikings, who play St. Michael’s for the tournament championship, would never relinquish that lead although Clovis (6-4) drew to within two points twice in the last three minutes.

The Cats take on Los Lunas in the third place game.

After the game, in which his team hit only 20 of its 53 attempts from the floor, Wildcats coach J.D. Isler admitted that he was somewhat pleased that his team was still in a position to win in the closing moments.

“The way we were shooting, I thought, ‘Golly, we’re never getting any buckets,’ (and) I was a little surprised that we were still right there,” Isler said. “We didn’t shoot the ball at all. We had great looks, we just didn’t knock it down.

“And when you're not knocking down shots, you’ve got to take care of the ball and I didn’t feel we did a very good job of that.”

With 38 seconds remaining, Maya hit the first of five free throws he would score before the final buzzer as Valley pushed away from a two-point lead.

Maya had 18 points to lead the Vikings while Patrick Holmes tallied 12. Clovis’ Crockett scored 17 and teammates Brian Pierson (12 points), Arthur Calbert (11) and Logan Turnbow (10) also got into double figures.

Stopping Crockett, a signee with Texas Tech, was a focal point of the Valley defense.

“We tried to keep as many bodies around him at all times,” Coleman said. “Even if he didn’t have the ball, we wanted to have bodies around him.

“He’s obviously one of the best players in the state, if not the best, and I thought we did a real good job trying to get other people to beat us.”

Valley played seven of its first 10 games at home, but the win on Clovis’ home court gave additional credence that the Vikings are among the best Class 5A teams in the state.

“I think we are, because we beat Manzano right after they beat Highland,” Maya said. “We lost to Highland, but we played them pretty good. I think we’re up there.’