Opponents: La Lumiere Preview

By: Steven Pham

Graphic by: Sebastian Turso

Wichita, KS. - No. 5 Sunrise Christian Academy (7-1) will host No. 6 La Lumiere (8-0) in a Top 10 showdown at Bishop Carroll High School on Saturday, December 11th at noon. The game will also be televised on ESPN+.

Sunrise is coming off a 2-1 start to the NIBC season in Florida with big wins against No. 1 IMG Academy and No. 16 Oak Hill Academy. La Lumiere is undefeated and is currently ranked number one in the NIBC standings. La Lumiere took down Bishop Walsh, No. 13 Wasatch Academy, and Legacy Early College by a convincing 21+ points each game.

La Lumiere is coached by Patrick Holmes. He has been the head coach since the end of 2017 and was an assistant coach when La Lumiere won the 2017 championship. Holmes is looking to take this team back to Geico Nationals and win another one.

The team is led by two ESPN Top 100 players for the class of 2022; J.J. Starling (ranked #27) and Kebba Njie (#79). To round out their roster they have Jeremy Fears Jr. (ranked #31) for the class of 2023, Aden Holloway (#44) for the class of 2023, Chisom Okpara, Ryan Mabrey, Taj Manning, Christian Humphrey-Rembert, and Hampton Dauparas.

The last meeting between these two powerhouses was on January 28th, 2021 at the Montverde Academy Invitational Tournament. Sunrise dominated the game and won 77-53.

This will be the only matchup between these two teams during the regular season and Sunrise is looking to bounce back after their first loss of the season against No. 2 Montverde Academy. Meanwhile, La Lumiere will be looking to stay undefeated and on top of the NIBC standings this Saturday.

Be sure to get tickets to this Top 10 matchup here. If you are unable to attend the game, you can tune in on ESPN+ on Saturday, December 11th at noon.