Tonight at Bloomington North, cross-town rivals Bloomington South and Bloomington North face off for the first time this basketball season. Varsity’s tip-off is at 7:30 and JV starts at 6. Even though both teams have strong assets on both offense and defense, South believes their only threats are the crowd and potentially North’s senior guard and leading scorer, Malik Laffoon.  South senior forward, Hunter Lloyd seems to think it’s going to be a good match up. Going into the game, South has the upper hand with an 8-4 record while North is only 4-6. When asked what South is doing to prepare, Lloyd said, “Nothing really. Coach keeps reminding us to keep our heads in the game and not let the crowd effect the way we play.” While the crowd, along with Malik, will be the Panther’s biggest road blocks, Lloyd is convinced that their “confidence and cooperation with each other” will lead the team to another victory.

Follow @southoptimist for live tweets of tonight’s game.