No. 1 Valley wins state title rematch with Los Lunas
9-5 Viking boys are set to open a grueling district schedule
No. 1? Don’t try to sell Joe Coleman on that narrative. Not in mid-January.
“We’re not a No. 1 team,” Valley High School’s veteran boys basketball coach said matter-offactly. “I don’t know if there is a true No. 1 right now in 4A.”
For better or worse, Coleman’s Vikings, the defending state champions, are indeed ranked No. 1 by the state’s 4A coaches. And on Thursday night, with a rough district campaign set to begin next week, Valley collected one of its best wins of the season, 50-43 over visiting No. 4 Los Lunas in a rematch of last March’s state final.
The victory closed out the nondistrict portion of the schedule for the Vikings (9-5).
“It’s a good confidence-booster, that’s for sure,” said senior forward Jevon Baker, who scored 17 points, 15 in the decisive second half.
Baker and senior guard Seyi Oyeku combined to score 30 of Valley’s 35 second-half points after a grinding, less-than-aesthetically-pleasing 15-15 tie in the first half.
“We tried to rebound and push the ball a lot, push the tempo, get the tempo running,” said Oyeku, who led all scorers with 22 points. “We were trying to get it into the 50-point, 60-point range. Whenever we play them, it’s always in the 30s, so we’re trying to pick up the pace.”
Valley’s increased defensive pressure rattled the Tigers a bit in the third quarter, creating a couple of routine baskets for the Vikes. The game was tied at 20 when Valley recorded a gamechanging 11-2 run, almost all of it springing from the work of Baker and Oyeku.
Although the Vikings went scoreless the final 3:14 of the third quarter, they led 31-22 at that point.
The Tigers (9-8) narrowed the margin to four early in the fourth quarter, but got no closer. Valley made 10 more free throws than did Los Lunas.
“I think first and foremost, we picked up their pressure a little bit in the front court, and it gave us some easy buckets,” Coleman said. “And that got us going a little bit. That allowed us to get a little bit of a lead, and then we were able to spread them out.”
Valley shot an impressive 10-of17 (58.9%) in the final two quarters from the field.
Bryce Santana and Josh Murphy led the Tigers with nine points apiece.
Now Valley counts down to the start of district play, and the Vikings open District 6-4A action Tuesday at Bernalillo — a team that knocked the Vikings off twice last year.
“We’ve been so inconsistent the whole year,” Coleman said. “We haven’t been able to play a full 32 minutes, or play three or four good games in a row. So (tonight), we talked about being more physical and more aggressive, and playing the same way for 32 minutes, whether it’s going well for us or not.”