Around 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, the Bloomington North Gymnasium began to fill up with eager Panther fans, in hopes to get an up close and personal spot next to the visiting team. This was the highly anticipated boy’s basketball rivalry game against the Bloomington South Panthers and the Bloomington North Cougars, who had the home court advantage for this match up.
South started the game by receiving the tip-off and quickly scoring a bucket 30 seconds into the first quarter. The gym was jammed full of screaming fans, dressed in maroon and purple. “I was super tired before the game,” Senior starter Tucker Blackwell stated, “all North, South games during the season are pretty much the same; we knew it’d be sold out so we just needed to adjust to that.”
The Panthers adjusted quickly, shutting the Cougars down after their 17 second lead. The first quarter ended with a Panther lead, 17-7. Both teams played well defensively, but North could not keep up with South offensively. Especially Blackwell, who ended the first half with 18 points.
“I feel like I played pretty well,” Blackwell said, “the team played extremely well, we shot the ball and defended really nicely, which kind of took them [North] out of the game quick.” The Panthers continued their lead into halftime, 33-15.
After the half, both teams were on a mission to win. However, South did not let up. The Panthers ended the third quarter on top, 50-29. “My assignment really was to shut down Musa [Jallow, North starter],” Senior Hunter Loyd said, “despite his rebounds, he had 10 points, I feel like I played great.”
Loyd had one massive dunk in the fourth quarter that made the crowd go wild. “The dunking is always fun, especially when the crowd goes crazy; it was even better that it was against and at North,” he said.
Loyd ended the game with 10 points. As the fourth quarter drew to a close, the South fans began to chant “this is our town” in confidence that the Panthers would come out with a victory. When that final buzzer sounded, South finished on top with a 66-43 win.
“I was feeling pretty good, happy to get out of that place with a win,” Blackwell said. “it’s bittersweet, I’ve played North seven times so I’ll definitely miss all the hype that goes into the game.” Blackwell was the leading scorer of the night with 26 points.
“It stinks that this is my last season, it’s been a super short four years so I’m just trying to savor all the time I have left and make a memorable run in March,” he said.
