Hope Christian's superb 'D' is key in Huskies' road win at Albuquerque Academy

Here are two things that were equally true from Tuesday night’s Hope Christian-Albuquerque Academy girls basketball game:

The Chargers had one of their worst shooting nights of the season.

The Huskies had one of their best defensive showings of the season.

Combine the two, and you get fourth-ranked Hope’s 38-34 road win at No. 3-ranked Academy in a matchup of the top two teams in District 6-4A. The night ended with Hope (20-4) and Academy (19-5) tied for first place in the league, both with 5-1 records.

“It’s been a couple of years, we’ve been neck and neck with them and haven’t been able to pull one out,” Hope coach Michael Cole said.

The formula, Cole said was this: Look at Academy’s big three – Lily Skarsgard, Harper Dunn, Addie Spratley – and shut down two of them.

Which the Huskies did, more or less.

This was particularly true in the second half, when neither Skarsgard, the Chargers’ excellent sophomore point guard, nor Dunn, Academy’s 6-foot-6 junior forward, scored a single point.

Spratley, a senior forward, just about single handedly kept Academy in this game, to be fair, with 13 of her team-best 18 points after halftime as the Chargers trailed a large part of the game.

But Skarsgard was not a factor, and Dunn – before fouling out with 3:22 left – was not a factor, either. Dunn, like most of Academy, had a horrible shooting night, and finished with just two points after missing her team’s previous two games nursing a hip injury. Skarsgard’s 12 all came in the first half, but the Huskies denied her the type of perimeter looks she is accustomed to getting.

The Hope defense was certainly sharper than when these teams met two weeks ago and Academy won by 15.

“I think what was mostly different was our defense,” said Hope 6-foot junior wing Bri Bishop, who scored six of her 11 points in the fourth quarter. “We shut Lily down and Mia (Bishop, Bri’s older sister) did an amazing job on Harper.”

Cole said the fourth quarter of the first meeting was problematic for his Huskies — much like the fourth quarter was Tuesday for the Chargers, who trailed Hope 23-21 at halftime and 26-25 after three quarters.

“The wheels kind of came off in the fourth quarter last game,” Cole said. “And we couldn’t handle it. Bri was in foul trouble. (Tonight), the other thing is, we had a defensive game plan that worked. Lily didn't get a clean (look) all night.”

If both teams win out – Academy still has a big home game against Bernalillo next week – then 6-4A is headed for a playoff game.

“Hope defended us really well, and we had players miss shots that we normally make,” Chargers coach Josh Skarsgard said. “Credit goes to Hope. I think they were really hyped to win this game and they had better energy.”

Tuesday’s game was tied at 32 after Spratley hit two free throws with 2:29 to go.

Bri Bishop scored from close range with 1:57 left, and she added two free throws with 46.7 seconds remaining for a 36-32 lead.

With 15.2 seconds left, Spratley was at the line with a chance to tie the game. She missed both tries; Louisa Landavazo buried two clinching free throws for the Huskies with 9.6 seconds left.

“We’re doing something special this year, and I think we had to prove it in this game,” Bri Bishop said.

Adalynn Day also scored 11 points for Hope Christian. 

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