Opponents: Spalding Hoophall Classic Preview

By: Steven Pham

Photo by: Mikayla Lomas

Wichita, KS. - Newly No. 1 ranked Sunrise Christian Academy will be tested at the Spalding Hoophall Classic this weekend. The Hoophall Classic is a series of games every day starting on Thursday, January 13th to Monday, January 17th with teams from all over the country loaded with talent.

Game #1

Sunrise will take on No. 18 Combine Academy on Saturday, January 15th at 1:30 p.m. EST. This will be the first and only meeting between these two teams in the regular season. This game will be streamed on FloSports, to sign up and join FloSports, click here.

Combine is 12-3 on the season with losses to Moravian Prep, AZ Compass Prep, and Word of God. This will be another challenging opponent for Combine and the biggest matchup of the season for them.

Jeff McInnis has been the head coach of Combine since 2019. The team is led by No. 94 ranked Jayden Epps on ESPN’s Top 100 for the class of 2022. The supporting cast includes; Patrick Wessler, Preston Murphy Jr., Joel Baucom, A.J. Smith, Prince Johnson, Matai Baptiste, Antonio Hamlin, Braylhan Thomas, Maye Bote, Elijah Green, and Stephen Quinn.

This team is loaded with talent and can be dangerous if Sunrise does not come out dominant and aggressive early.

Game #2

Sunrise will take on No. 25 Wasatch Academy for their second and last game at the Hoophall Classic. The game is on Sunday, January 16th at 5 p.m. EST on ESPN+.

This will be the second and final meeting between these two teams in the regular season. Sunrise beat Wasatch 64-50 at the NIBC La Porte invitational a little over a week ago. Wasatch will be seeking revenge and hoping to spoil Sunrise’s reign as the No. 1 team in high school basketball.

The last meeting was sloppy for both teams. Wasatch was in the game the entire time but Sunrise answered all their runs and pulled away with the victory. Wasatch has the talent to win big games and their star players can explode and dominate a game quickly.

Wasatch will be coming off a game against The Patrick School in their first game at the Hoophall Classic. Keep an eye out for Wasatch’s Roddy Gayle and Chris Bunch who were both quiet in the first meeting against Sunrise.