Highland is 7-1 against Albuquerque Academy since November of 2016, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Thursday. The Highland Hornets will head out on the road to challenge the Albuquerque Academy Chargers at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully Highland focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 31 on Friday.
Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to post seven more assists than your opponent, a fact Highland proved. They took down Manzano 48-31. The win was just what Highland needed coming off of a 79-49 loss in their prior game.
Highland's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Rebecca Neal, who scored four points along with 14 rebounds and six assists, and Breanna Payton, who scored 15 points. Payton has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last three times she's played. Another player making a difference was Alison Ryan, who scored nine points.
In what's become a running theme this season, Albuquerque Academy gave their fans yet another huge win on Saturday. They put the hurt on Belen with a sharp 53-32 win. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as Albuquerque Academy just coasted through the last quarter.
Noelani Montoya was the offensive standout of the matchup as she scored 19 points along with nine rebounds. As a matter of fact, that's the most points she has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Addie Spratley, who scored nine points along with nine rebounds.
Highland has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 8-8 record this season. As for Albuquerque Academy, the win makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 10-5.
Thursday's match will pit two of the most dominant players against one another: Neal and Spratley. Neal has been dynamite this season: she has averaged 9.9 points, 1.5 blocks, and 1.8 steals. For her part, Spratley has averaged 13.2 points, 1.9 steals, and 7.9 rebounds.
Highland won a match that couldn't have been any closer when the teams last played back in December of 2023, slipping by Albuquerque Academy 49-48. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Spratley, who scored 14 points along with six steals and two blocks. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Highland still be able to contain him? There's only one way to find out.
