Academy girls overcome slow start in Bernalillo

It was one of those nights for the Albuquerque Academy girls basketball team.

Think about this: the third-ranked Chargers, in their 56-37 District 6-4A road win at No. 5-ranked Bernalillo on Friday night, had a girl who pulled down 20 rebounds.

And her last name was not Dunn.

The Chargers had multiple major contributors in this key district game.

Harper Dunn scored 20 points for Academy (15-4, 4-0). Guard Lily Skarsgard added 16 points. And Kiki Brown, a sophomore post, hauled in 20 rebounds.

“Kiki out of nowhere pulled a Dennis Rodman game,” Chargers coach Josh Skarsgard said with a laugh.

Bernalillo (19-2, 1-2), with a big home crowd on hand, opened strong, scoring 10 of the game’s first 11 points in the initial three minutes and forcing Academy into a timeout.

“We had to settle in,” Skarsgard said.

Which they did, gradually. The Chargers overtook the Spartans in the early stages of the second quarter, led by nine at halftime, and pulled away from there.

Dunn, Skarsgars said, had a dominant game against Bernalillo’s effective and sizable frontcourt, while Skarsgard, as usual, provided spark from the arc.

For Bernalillo, it was the Spartans’ second loss in three games, as they also fell to district rival Hope Christian a week earlier.

Academy has the early lead in 6-4A, and the Chargers already have victories over Bernalillo and Hope.

“Those are huge wins for us,” Skarsgard said. “We’re establishing our identity and we’re starting to gel.”

Academy has a quick turnaround; the Chargers play host to 5A’s seventh-ranked La Cueva at 1 p.m. Saturday, though Academy will be down a couple of players, including Brown, who are attending a club tournament in Texas.

Also Friday night, in their first meeting since squaring off earlier this month in the championship game of the Albuquerque Metro Championships, the No. 4-ranked Volcano Vista boys took down No. 1 Cleveland, 66-55, on the West Side. Both are 3-1 in league play.

Also from that district, Cibola’s boys, playing at home, upset Farmington 73-71 in overtime.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.