Basketball Game Preview: Belvidere North Blue Thunder vs. Guilford Vikings

Belvidere North is 2-8 against Guilford since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Belvidere North Blue Thunder will face off against the Guilford Vikings at 7:00 p.m. Both come into the contest bolstered by wins in their previous matches.

Having struggled with five defeats in a row, Belvidere North turned things around against Belvidere on Tuesday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against the Bucs, sneaking past 57-54. The win was all the more spectacular given the Blue Thunder's disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 455th, while the Bucs are ranked 226th).

Meanwhile, Guilford didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Harlem on Tuesday, but they still walked away with a 42-37 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Vikings.

Guilford is also on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 14 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 22-6 record this season. As for Belvidere North, their win ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 8-20.

Belvidere North was taken down by Guilford 56-23 in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Guilford's Baylee Sandine, who went 7 of 12 en route to 19 points along with six assists and four steals. Now that Belvidere North knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.