La Lumiere Wins Dick's Nationals

La Lumiere School from LaPorte won the Dick's Sporting Goods High School Nationals Saturday in New York City.

La Lumiere went through an extremely tough field to win the Dick's title. The Lakers beat Wasatch Academy, Findlay Prep and Montverde Academy. Those are three excellent teams with tremendous history. La Lumiere defeated Montverde 70-52 in the championship game. Jaren Jackson led La Lumiere with 17 points. Brian Bowen added 15 points and seven rebounds. In a losing effort, RJ Barrett, a top ranked player in 2019, scored 25 points for Montverde.

La Lumiere played for the title last year but lost to Oak Hill Academy in the championship game. Led by Shane Heirman, La Lumiere finished the season 29-1. The one loss came to Sierra Canyon by two points at the Hoops Hall Classic in January. 

It has been an incredible rise for La Lumiere. 2010-2011 was the start of the La Lumiere building process. The school was not known for its basketball prior to that. In 2010, Alan Huss, currently an assistant at New Mexico, took over the program. Huss came to La Lumiere from Culver Academies. He instantly turned La Lumiere into a serious basketball program. He had the likes of Hanner Perea, Obij Aget and Bobo Drummond on the first team. The talent level of the roster has improved every season since then.

This year was the most talented La Lumiere team in its history. The Lakers had two McDonald's All-Americans in Brian Bowen and Jaren Jackson Jr. plus point guard Tyger Campbell is a top 25 prospect in the 2019 class. La Lumiere was able to bring Michigan signee Jordan Poole off the bench most of the year. That is a good sign of the strength of the roster. Jacob Epperson, a Creighton commitment, added size in the post to complement Jaren Jackson. Isaiah Coleman-Lands, Kevin Zhang and Grant Beucler would be stars at other schools but were role players for La Lu.

It has been fun to watch La Lumiere become a national power over the last few years under the leadership of Shane Heirman. Heirman played at Tulsa then was an assistant for Alan Huss at La Lumiere. The ability for Heirman to assemble and manage talented rosters has been impressive. It is especially incredible considering that Heirman is 28 years old.