01/12/2026
BY JACK BULLOCK
SPARTA - Monday night Sparta hosted a team that plays a similar style to what the Bulldogs like to play.

The problem for Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran is that Sparta was much better at it.

The Bulldogs were happy to run up and down the floor with the Knights and they forced many more mistakes than what they made.

The end result was an up-and-down the floor 85-66 win at Dwight Fulton Gym.

With Coach Jordan Beckley's permission the Bulldogs kept up the pressure on MEL, forcing 24-turnovers and breaking free late in the second quarter to improve to 15-2 overall on the season.

The loss dropped the Knights to 4-11 in 2025-26.

Dariontez Monroe, a 6-foot junior guard, paced the Bulldogs with 24-points.

Teammate freshman Jakhai Dancy added 20-points, nailing down four of the eight 3-pointers made by Sparta in the contest.

Six-two junior Tyrell Charles did his damage on the inside, scoring 19-points mostly around the basket.

He added a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, which was part of a free-for-all final frame in which the two teams combined for 48-points, 26 by the Bulldogs.

Senior Grant Allard (seven) and sophomore Camden Allard (five) pitched in points and each canned a 3-pointer in the Sparta conquest.

Sophomore DJ Hayes added a pair of scores for four-points and Coach Beckley got two points each from senior Dequan Woods, junior Eian Wallace and sophomore Owen Kueker in the scoring balancing act.

It all added up to a high-scoring victory, their fourth consecutive win.

“It was a different pace than what we normally see, coming back at us. They were getting the ball and going and we needed to do a better job stopping them,” said Coach Beckley. “But we did what we do in the second half. We did what we needed to. We get the win and we move on.”

Edwardsville Metro-East Lutheran received 20-points, a team-best, from senior Brady Bishop and 10-points apiece from seniors Ian Skelton and Lucas Lorenz along with nine-points from senior Kaleb Turney.

MEL held a couple of first quarter leads before Sparta eased away from the Knights.

First quarter 3-pointers by Dancy and Grant Allard along with a couple of inside baskets by Monroe staked the Bulldogs to a 21-16 lead at the end of the opening quarter.

The guests shot the ball well in the second quarter hitting 7-of-9 shots, including a 3-pointer by Turney, which helped keep the Knights close.

But consecutive scores by both Allard's and a drive inside by Monroe closed the half at 41-31 Bulldogs.

“Grant is our steadying force from the three, Dancy has shot the ball well and he's been hot lately, especially from three, and Monroe does a little bit of everything for us,” said Coach Beckley. “DJ didn't score much but he does other things for us and Tyrell (Charles) will get in there and mix it up with anyone. He is undersized height-wise but the way he gets off of the floor he is able to negate that.”

A 10-2 run to begin the second half by Sparta was the beginning of the end for the Knights.

Monroe nailed down a 3-pointer from the right wing before Dancy scored on a drive in the lane that turned into a conventional three-point play.

Monroe finished a fast break for a score and then assisted on a transition basket by Charles to force a timeout by Metro-East Lutheran ad 51-33 with 5:07 left in the third quarter.

Monroe showed that he can play on the inside with a score near the basket and both Hayes and Charles added points to close the quarter at 59-44 Sparta.

Metro-East cut the margin down to 69-57 after a 3-pointer from Lorenz hit the mark with 4:06 left.

The Knights would get no closer.

Dancy answered with a 3-point bomb from the right wing and Monroe made a nice move in the paint for an “And-One” three-point play.

Two more baskets by Monroe and a score from Grant Allard pushed the lead to the point where both coaches threw in the reserves for the final 1:25.

“This time of year, besides conference games, it is all about gearing up for the postseason. We know there are a lot of good teams out there and we want to be prepared for all of those teams by playing similar teams in the regular season,” said Coach Beckley.

Sparta ended up 35-of-62 from the floor (56.4 percent) and 8-of-20 from the 3-point arc.

They committed 15-turnovers but the Bulldogs defense overshadowed the issue.

MEL held a slight 24-20 rebounding edge and they managed a pretty good shooting night, 29-of-54 (53.7 percent) including 5-of-11 from long range.

However the turnover problem led to too many easy shots from Sparta.

Neither team missed a free throw in the contest, something that isn't the norm.

Sparta went 7-of-7 and MEL hit all three of their tosses.

Wesclin is the next obstacle for the Bulldogs as the Warriors come to town on Friday night in a key Cahokia Conference Illinois Division battle.

Sparta won the first meeting 53-49 at Wesclin on December 16th.

“We have a huge conference game Friday with Wesclin. It was a battle at their place and we expect the same here,” said Coach Beckley. “Coach Brede is a hall-of-fame coach and we will do our best to be prepared and I'm sure they will.”