The lead for the North Shore Conference is up for grabs as two powerhouses enter Homestead’s field house on Friday at 7:30.

Homestead (6-2, 5-0) goes head-to-head with three-time state champion Germantown (8-0, 5-0). Homestead lost both head-to-heads last year, and this game is the first of the home-and-away set for the Highlanders. Both teams are coming off victories as Germantown beat Nicolet on Monday, 73-41, and Homestead beat Milwaukee Lutheran on Tuesday night.

“Playing Germantown is always the most exciting part of the season. You get a chance to play in front of a great crowd and the atmosphere is like nothing you will ever play in,” point guard Seth Cooley, Class of ‘14, said.

Homestead recently lost a player for the season, when Nick Allen, senior, tore his ACL during practice this year. “We’ve had to come together as a team to fill in for Nick (Allen), people have been asked to play multiple positions now, while also being able to bring the type of energy he had everyday,” Mitchell Sutton, senior, said.

Key players to watch out for on Germantown are, point guard Juwaun McCloud, strong forward Kyle Thiess and sixth man Keefe Maxwell. Josh Mueller, junior, and Jaylen Key, senior,  6’7” and 6’8” respectively, look to create mismatches as they both have a slight height advantage over anyone on Germantown .

“I think in previous years their team had an obvious advantage over us. But last year we could have beat Germantown and we had what it took to beat them. It came down to a couple of calls and loose balls. But this year, we know what we have to do to beat them, and it will come down to us playing our game and executing,” Key said.

Proving to be a pivotal matchup in the shake down of the North Shore rankings, be sure to be in the area to watch it all go down, but if you cannot, the game will also be broadcast live on My24.