Dartanus White had a huge night offensively and the Sparta defense picked up its intensity in the second half for a 68-61 win over Red Bud during the opening night of the 46th annual Sparta Mid-Winter Classic Tuesday night.
“I am real pleased with our defense in the second half,” said Sparta coach Rich Williams. “Honestly, I was disappointed with our defense at halftime, but we came out and really guarded in the second half. It is always important to open up play in a tournament with a win, especially in your own tournament. Red Bud is a very good team and we have been lucky enough to get on top of them twice this season.”

White finished with a game high 25 points with 14 coming in the second half as Red Bud had no answer for him attacking the basket.
“When Dartanus plays well, he is a force that is hard to guard,” added Williams. “The kids do a good job of getting him the ball in a position to score.”

Red Bud nipped Sparta 17-16 in a fast paced first quarter as Tyler Magruder nailed a three-pointer right as the buzzer sounded. Kory Liefer had five points in the opening frame to pace Red Bud, while teammate Adam Kunkel added four.
Sparta used a balanced scoring attack to open things up as six different Bulldogs scored in the opening quarter with London Oliver leading the way with four points off the bench.

After being held to just two points in the first frame, White broke out in the second scoring nine points but his team was outscored 17-14 as the Musketeers grabbed a 34-30 halftime lead.
Magruder, who nailed the final shot of the first quarter, kept the hot hand draining three three-pointers in the second for nine points to help spark a 6-1 Red Bud run to end the half with the four-point lead.
The Bulldogs made 8-of-9 shots in the third quarter to outscore Red Bud 23-14 to take a 53-48 lead into the fourth quarter. White continued his outstanding play by scoring 10 points in the third. Wes Kiner added five points in the frame for Sparta, while Maurice Austin knocked down two three-pointers.

For Red Bud, Jake Hoffman tallied six points to keep his team close, while Liefer added four.
The Musketeers cut the deficit to four points earlier in the fourth quarter but couldn’t get any closer, as Sparta made 11-of-14 free throws in the quarter to ice the victory.
Behind White’s 25 points the Sparta offense was led by Austin with 14, David Sams with eight and Kiner with seven.
Four players finished in double figures in scoring for Red Bud as Hoffman had 18, Magruder and Liefer each finished with 13 and Kunkel added 10.
In other first day action, Du Quoin topped Steeleville 64-45 and Columbia edged Lebanon 62-53.

Du Quoin 64
Steeleville 45
J.C. Davis made six three-pointers to lead Du Quoin past Steeleville 64-45 Tuesday night.
The Warriors fell behind 16-12 in the first quarter and trailed 35-22 at halftime.
Du Quoin put the win on ice in the second half by outscoring Steeleville 29-23 over the final two quarters of play.
Josh Diercks led the Steeleville offense with 12 points, while Colin Smith added 10 in the loss.