Even though the Steeleville Warriors have not done well against the New Athens Yellow Jackets recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Thursday. Steeleville walked away with a 42-30 win over New Athens. That result was just more of the same for these two, as Steeleville also won the last time the pair played back in December of 2023.
Steeleville found their leader in underclassman Rylan Reiss , who scored 19 points along with four steals. That makes it four consecutive games in which Reiss has scored at least 25% of Steeleville's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Bailey Cole, who scored eight points along with eight rebounds and five steals.
New Athens lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Mallory Kohnen, who scored six points along with six rebounds. Peyton Houser was another key contributor, scoring eight points.
Even though they lost, New Athens were smashing the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Steeleville only pulled down 17 offensive rebounds.
Steeleville's win bumped their record up to 6-8. As for New Athens, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 2-13.
Steeleville's road trip will continue as they head out to face Dupo at 1:30 p.m. on January 6th. Hopefully Dupo focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Friday. As for New Athens, they will take on Cobden at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Illinois (Cobden is ranked 668th, while New Athens is ranked 692nd).
