Basketball Game Preview: New Athens Yellow Jackets vs. Steeleville Warriors

New Athens and Steeleville are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2022, but not for long. The New Athens Yellow Jackets will challenge the Steeleville Warriors at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. New Athens has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games.

Last Monday, New Athens ended up a good deal behind Sparta and lost 59-43. The Yellow Jackets have struggled against the Bulldogs recently, as the game was their third consecutive lost matchup.

The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Brooke Deterding, who posted 13 points along with eight boards and six steals. That's the most rebounds she has posted since back in November of 2024. Mallory Kohnen was another key player, putting up four points in addition to ten boards and three blocks.

Even though they lost, New Athens smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 12 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive rebounds in three consecutive matchups.

Meanwhile, Steeleville was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their third straight defeat. They came up short against Sesser-Valier/Waltonville, falling 49-26. That's two games in a row now that the Warriors have lost by exactly 23 points.

New Athens' loss dropped their record down to 3-13. As for Steeleville, their defeat dropped their record down to 6-15.

New Athens couldn't quite finish off Steeleville when the teams last played back in December of 2024 and fell 43-40. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Steeleville's Rylan Reiss, who almost dropped a double-double on 18 points and nine rebounds. Now that New Athens knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.