Last Friday, the Christian Heritage Crusaders traveled all the way to Tulsa to take on the Lincoln Christian Bulldogs.

The girls have some room for improvement after losing 67-47. The boys also fell short, but they stayed much closer with the Bulldogs falling 65-61.

The Lady Bulldogs won due to several turnovers by the Lady Crusaders. The ladies just couldn’t throw the ball hard enough to keep it out of the hands of their opponents.

Christian Heritage also struggled to stop Shaelyn Ward, who was the star of the night.

Ward was chosen as the Eastern Oklahoma County Sports female player of the game by EastWord, who livestreamed the game for fans at home.

The stand-out scored 23 points. The top Lady Crusader scorer, Riley Hendrick, scored 12 points.

“We have a lot of improvement we need to make,” said Crusaders point guard Victoria Frolich of the game.

During the boys game, it started off as a shoot out.

The first three Lincoln Christian baskets were 3-pointers scored by Nate Launders and Colby Starr.

CHA answered with three 3-pointers of their own from brothers, Caleb and Gabe Littlejim.

Throughout the game, the teams went back and forth with each leading several times.

The Crusaders, led by C. Littlejim with 22 points, just ran out of steam in the end. The game stayed close until the last 20 seconds when the Bulldogs finally pulled away with two huge 3-point shots by Riley Young.

“We need more games like this to be able to hold onto the lead when we get down in the fourth quarter,” said C. Littlejim of the finish.

This loss marked the first on the season for the Crusaders.

Next, CHA will take on Dale at home for homecoming this Friday, Dec. 20 EastWord will livestream the game.