Just three days removed from one of its biggest wins in years, Albuquerque Hope Christian was smacked with a dose of reality Tuesday night in Perez-Shelley Memorial Gymnasium.

Led by Alexa Chavez's 24 points, 20 rebounds and three blocked shots, No. 4 St. Michael's pulled a mild upset with a 48-42 victory in a critical District 5AAA contest.

The second-ranked Lady Huskies entered this week as the presumptive No. 1 team in the Class AAA coaches' poll, which is due out Wednesday.

The Lady Huskies (19-3, 3-1) had won 13 straight games coming into Tuesday's contest, including a huge district win at two-time defending state champion Santa Fe Indian School over the weekend.

A win at St. Michael's (16-5, 3-1) would have allowed Hope to put a stranglehold on the 5AAA race. Instead, the top three teams in the district are tied with four games left in the regular season.

"I was afraid this might be a letdown game for us after the big win Saturday, and I talked to the girls about that a little," said Terry Heisey, Lady Huskies head coach. "But you can talk all you want. You still have to do it on the court and [Tuesday] we didn't do it."

Hope's undoing was its own inability to put the ball in the bucket. The Lady Huskies shot just 22 percent (14-for-64) from floor despite dominating the offensive glass, 22-11.

"We couldn't hit the broad side of a barn," Heisey said. "You make half of those and you're up by 10. It's not typical for us."

And then there was Chavez. The Lady Horsemen senior was unstoppable through the game's first three quarters.

At one point she had as many points (19) as Hope's entire roster when her putback of her own missed jumper gave St. Michael's a 26-19 lead.

The Huskies trimmed it to 26-25 midway through the quarter, but a 10-0 run sparked by the Lady Horsemen's supporting cast made it 36-25 entering the final period.

Point guard Monique Romero, backup guard Viola Pecos and power forward Elizabeth Serrano each scored buckets during the spurt.

"People can double team me but if they do that, we have so many other contributing factors on this team that we can still get the job done," Chavez said.

Hope trailed by as many as 13 in the fourth quarter but got within three points in the final minute on a free throw by point guard Marissa Perry.

St. Michael's head coach Martin Romero said it was his team's defense on Perry -- who just happens to be his God daughter -- that was the key to the game.

Monique Romero concurred. Having grown up in the same basketball circles as Perry, the Lady Horsemen floor general said she knows the signature moves Perry often uses to demoralize most opponents.

"She's a right-handed player but her strongest move is left handed," she said. "She's so quick. She'll pull you off the dribble and blow right by you if you're not ready."

Perry finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, but she played the entire second half with foul trouble. Monique Romero had six points with a blocked shot and two rebounds.

Serrano was the only other St. Michael's player in double figures with 10 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter when Chavez was held to just a pair of free throws. Serrano also pulled down five rebounds and was 4-for-4 at the line in the final 98 seconds.

Afterward, Martin Romero said he was happy with his team's effort on the glass in the second half. Hope started the game just 1-for-10 from the field, but the Lady Huskies had 14 offensive rebounds in the first half compared to three for the Lady Horsemen.

"It was all effort in the second half," Romero said. "No more excuses. No more 'they're bigger and stronger.' We needed this game and, really, I'm not surprised we took it. We knew we could run with them and Hope plays at a pace that's more to our style of play. And now we're back in the district race. This one was huge."