Each January, the Allstate Sugar Bowl sponsors the National Prep Basketball Classic featuring multiple brackets for both boys’ and girls’ high school basketball players. It has featured teams from Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas.
While the event started with eight teams in 2011, it is expected to grow to more than 64 teams in 2019. The tournament will feature at least eight out of state participants.
In addition, in 2018, the tournament organizers, Friends of Prep Sports LLC, awarded four $1,500 scholarships to deserving student athletes in the tournament.
Ten Louisiana state basketball champions and 13 out-of-state schools highlight the field in the 2019 Allstate Sugar Bowl National Prep Classic. Overall, 68 teams will compete from January 2nd-5th at the Alario Center in Westwego, La. Daily admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students (with student ID) and children.
There will be a total of five championships awarded in the event. Boys will compete in a 16-team National Bracket as well as an eight-team State Bracket. There will be three girls’ divisions – a 14-team Platinum Bracket, a 14-team Gold Bracket and a 16-team Silver Bracket.
The boys’ national bracket features top seed Bishop Loughlin (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Carver (Montgomery, Ala.), Christ School (Arden, N.C.), Lee (Huntsville, Ala.), Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.), Miami (Fla.) Palmetto, St. Rita of Cascia (Chicago, Ill.), Silsbee (Texas) and White Station (Memphis, Tenn.). Carver and Lee feature two of the top recruits in the class of 2019 in Jaykwon Walton and Kobe Brown, respectively.
Looking to hold off the out-of-state challengers in this year’s event will be tournament host Riverside Academy (Reserve, La.) which won the Allstate Sugar Bowl National Prep Classic for the fourth time in eight seasons with a 61-55 overtime victory over Edna Karr last January.
Louisiana champions in the boys’ brackets include Walker (5A), Madison Prep (3A), Scotlandville (Division I), and Lafayette Christian (Division IV).
The girls’ brackets will feature six Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA state champions, including Warren Easton (4A), Loranger (3A), North Caddo (2A), Ursuline (Division II), St. Katharine Drexel (Division III) and John Curtis (Division I).
In 2018, John Curtis won the Girls’ Platinum championship by defeating Kenwood (Ill.) Academy in the finals.