03/02/2026
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE – The 1A sectional being held at Trico this week has some interesting match ups with four teams who all received votes in the final small school boy's basketball poll by the Associated Press.

Waltonville has perhaps the best resume of the group heading to Campbell Hill this week.

The Spartans have some impressive wins on the year with victories over 3A teams Marion, Carbondale and Highland, 2A squads Carterville, Fairfield and St. Joseph-Ogden along with 20-win 1A clubs Altamont, Woodlawn, Webber Township, Norris City-Omaha-Enfield and New Athens.

They topped the Yellow Jackets for the second time Friday night to capture the 1A Elverado Regional title.

Altamont, Carterville, and Fairfield won regionals on Friday night and are still alive in the postseason.

The losses were to 3A Centralia, Goreville, Woodlawn and Nashville.

Three of those four are also playing in sectionals this week.

The average win total of all of the Spartans' opponents was 18.2.

Gage Peterson is another of the southern Illinois standouts who reached the 2K point total for his career.

The 6-6 senior forward has been a constant for the Spartans averaging just over 17-points a night.

The numbers aren't flashy for the all-time leading scorer in the program's history but this season he has had a lot of help offensively.

Six-six junior Jagger Mayville is a 13-points a game scorer for the Spartans and he and Peterson carry the Windex bottles and paper towels each night as they clean up the glass with over 15-rebounds combined per contest.

Guard play has been a key for the Spartans' success.

Junior Witten Devor (12.1 p.p.g.), senior Riley Stewart (8.2 p.p.g.) and senior Weston Rose (3.8 p.p.g.) are central to the game plan set forth by head coach Anthony Lowery.

Junior Carter Stewart, senior Brendan Klingler and junior Brighym Beaquette have given solid bench minutes for a team that had high aspirations heading into 2025-26.

Waltonville made quick work of both Christopher and New Athens in winning the 1A Elverado Regional championship.

Mayville scorched the Yellow Jackets with 25-points on Friday night.

The Spartans' program has now won nine regional boy's basketball titles and are looking to add their second sectional championship this week.

The 1989-90 Spartans made it to the Carbondale Super-Sectional after winning the Sparta Sectional back in the old two-class system under then head coach Ed Belva.

If Waltonville were to make it all the way and win the 1A state championship, they would become the second smallest school (95 students) to win a title.

Findlay won the 1991-92 Class A state crown with just 92 kids.

The Spartans opposition on Tuesday have been flying under the radar for most of the season.

Hardin County picked up only the program's fourth regional championship on Friday night, edging Norris City-Omaha-Enfield 53-51.

It was the fourth game played between the Greater Egyptian Conference combatants with the Cougars winning the final three contests.

The program won regionals in 1984, 1986, 2015 and this season.

Head coach Rodney Lane has put together a quality squad that has only one loss since January 1st.

Hardin County won the consolation championship of the Eldorado Holiday Tournament and the annual GEC tournament title.

Both of those wins were against NCOE.

Coach Lane has a veteran senior group led by 6-foot guard Landon Fricker and 6-2 senior Nate Massie.

Massie put up a career-best 27-points in the regional title game win at Gallatin County on Friday, hitting 13-of-15 free throws, 6-of-7 in the fourth quarter, for the victory.

Fricker was held to just six-points but the other teammates picked up the slack.

Sophomore Xavier Whooper scored nine-points for the Cougars and junior Bryden Banks added eight.

Seniors Christian Winters and Caden Heberer have been a big part of the 26-7 regional titlist.

Although they didn't play a overly tough schedule, they posted some good wins.

The Cougars conquered Massac County in overtime on the road, a team that lost to Carterville on a last season shot Friday night to Carterville in the 2A Massac County Regional.

They also beat 2A teams Harrisburg, Eldorado, Johnston City and lost to regional champion Goreville, 61-51 early in the season.

They played right with Webber Township for three quarters on the road February 4th before losing 70-54.

They will need a big effort to pick up their first ever sectional victory after having lost in the semifinals in their previous three trips.

Goreville, after a bit of a rough stretch in late January, got back on track at the right time for head coach Todd Tripp.

The Blackcats dropped a pair of contests to Webber Township at home and at Woodlawn before finishing the regular season winning 10-of-11 contests.

Goreville made quick work of the teams at the 1A Cobden Regional, spanking Carrier Mills-Stonefort, Century and Cairo to improve to 30-4.

The resume sparkles with victories over Waltonville (40-39) in the title game at the Sesser-Valier Holiday Tournament, wins over 1A regional winners Casey-Westfield and Lawrenceville along with 2A regional winners Carterville and Benton.

Goreville has a one-two punch in scoring from 5-10 senior guard Zech Green and 6-1 junior guard Nick King.

King scored 25-points and Green added 24 as they pummeled Cairo in the title game Friday night.

Other starters include 6-2 senior Garrett Church, 6-1 junior Lawson Land, 6-foot freshman Dylan Tripp and 6-foot freshman Braden Compton.

Six-two junior Tommy King is another key reserve for a deep Blackcats' bench.

Friday night's victory added the 13th regional championship to the program's history with Coach Tripp being in charge for 11 of them.

Last season both Waltonville and Goreville lost heartbreaking decisions to Mounds Meridian.

Both will have work to do to get to a title game rematch from the December battle.

Sparta and head coach Jordan Beckley have emerged as a threat to reach Champaign in the program's first year classified as 1A.

The Bulldogs have been impressive, also sporting a 30-4 mark.

The losses are to 2A regional champ Breese Central, 1A Woodlawn in the title game of the Duster Thomas Hoops' Classic, and late season road losses at Carlyle and Steeleville.

In the last two defeats the Bulldogs had a starter (sophomore DJ Hayes) missing due to injury and the flu bug hit the program.

Nevertheless, Sparta got the motor purring at the right time for their postseason.

Hosting the regional the Bulldogs got revenge against Woodlawn on Friday night, taking down the state-ranked Cardinals' 55-47 to win their first regional crown since 1991.

It was just the seventh regional championship overall and they have just one sectional semifinal win, from 1974.

They look capable of doing some real damage at Trico this week.

Dariontez Monroe, a 6-foot junior guard/forward, is the leader of the Bulldogs.

Monroe scored 14-points for Sparta in their victory Friday night.

Five-ten freshman Jakhai Dancy continues to shine for Sparta, scoring a team-high 17-points in the win.

Hayes, a 5-11 sophomore who is back at full speed after a rib injury, added 14 to the scoring.

Six-two junior Tyrell Charles adds some size in the lane for the athletic squad and 5-10 sophomore Camden Allard gives Coach Beckley another outside threat.