Basketball Game Preview: Elizabeth Cardinals vs. Village Mountaineers

The Elizabeth Cardinals will square off against the Village Mountaineers at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Village better have a healthy lead at halftime, because if last week is any indication, that's when Elizabeth really get things going. Elizabeth was the clear victors by a 61-37 margin over Sierra on Monday.

Cohen Steinke

Steals

02/17/25 vs Sierra	3
02/14/25 @ Sand Creek	5
02/07/25 vs Weld Central	6
02/06/25 @ Sierra	4
02/04/25 vs Mitchell	6
+ 8 more games

Elizabeth found their leader in sophomore Cohen Steinke, who went 6-for-11 from beyond the arc to rack up 23 points along with six assists and five rebounds. Steinke has been hot for a while, having also posted two or more steals the last 13 times he's played. Bryan Jeffs was another key player, going 5-for-12 en route to 12 points and six assists.

Elizabeth was working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in February of 2024.

Meanwhile, Village had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 46 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They claimed a resounding 61-22 win over the Pirates. With the Mountaineers ahead 33-11 at the half, the game was all but over already.

Elizabeth better keep an eye on Carter Sterk. He was instrumental in Village's win, going 8-for-14 on his way to 20 points in addition to eight steals and five assists. With that strong performance, Sterk is now averaging an impressive 2.3 steals per game. Another player making a difference was James Driggers, who went 7-for-15 to rack up 17 points and five boards.

Elizabeth's victory bumped their record up to 8-12. As for Village, the win got them back to even at 9-9.

Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Elizabeth has been crashing the boards this season, having averaged 29 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Village struggles in that department as they've been averaging 31.6 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge Check back here after the action for a full breakdown and analysis of the contest.