Christian Heritage Gets Big Shot and Bigger Win

It was probably the biggest win in the short-lived history of the Christian Heritage College men’s basketball program, and it came courtesy of Chapman College and an errant inbound pass.

Until now, the highlights have been few for the tiny NAIA school in El Cajon with an enrollment of 400. Last season, in its first year, the basketball team went 8-20. But William Cunningham’s 18-foot shot at the buzzer gave Christian Heritage a 72-70 victory over Chapman Friday night in a nonconference game at the Hutton Sports Center.

Suddenly, a game that had appeared to be headed for overtime was over, and the Hawks had taken the first step toward establishing some sort of heritage with the unexpected victory.

“We’re a little school with a young program,” Christian Heritage Coach Jim Huckaby said. “This win probably means more to us than the loss does to them. For us to have the privilege of playing here was special for us. Maybe that’s why we won. Maybe they were expecting us to be a poorer team.”

Whatever Chapman thought of the Hawks, it certainly didn’t include the possibility of losing on a last-ditch shot. Chapman had a chance to make its own last-second shot when Christian Heritage’s Mark Kraatz missed a 20-footer with five seconds remaining. The Panthers got the rebound and called time out with two seconds left.

Then, Chapman’s Kelly Huston tried to inbound the ball downcourt. He was being guarded by 6-foot 10-inch John Burkhardt and launched a pass that landed out of bounds, and the Hawks took possession.

After another timeout, Kraatz inbounded the ball--safely--to Cunningham, and he sent up the 18-footer from the right side with one second remaining. It sailed through at the buzzer.

Said Cunningham: “I just wanted to get it up there. All I wanted to was to get it up and hope that it went in.”

Huckaby felt that Huston might have tried to throw the ball too hard because of Burkhardt’s size.

“To be honest, we were playing for overtime,” said Huckaby. “Our big kid did the job . . . it absolutely has to be devastating for those kids.”

Chapman Coach Kevin Wilson, though, was anything but devastated after his team’s opening game.

“A couple of times, we didn’t play smart, and that’s what hurt us,” he said.

Huston, aside from his miscue at the end, did have a strong game for the Panthers. He was their leading scorer with 21 points. Dave Roth had 17 and Russ Ortega added 12.

For the Hawks, Kraatz had a game-high 24 points and Bill Soucie scored 12.