PINETOWN — Friday marks the first rivalry showdown of basketball season when Washington travels to Northside. Washington, with four games under its belt, is still after its first win of the young season. Northside, on the other hand, just played its first game on Tuesday — a loss at First Flight.

The early-season challenges have taught both teams a lot, though. First Flight provided the Panthers with a stout challenge right off the bat.

“We’ve got to play a little tougher,” said Northside coach Michael Proctor. “We’ve got to get at it a little bit more and just play tougher.”

That’s a challenge that can be at least partially attributed to the Panthers only having two players return from last year’s team — senior guards Ikeem Greene and Jabari Ashe. Toughness is a challenge that comes with transitioning from junior varsity to varsity. They struggled because of a lack of varsity experience in the frontcourt. It’s something that Proctor is working on in practice, but is best learned via in-game experience.

Hosting Washington in just the second game of the season will be a great opportunity for just that. Naturally, the toughness Proctor is looking for is accentuated in rivalry games.

“They’re going to come out and play hard and they’re going to play rough,” he said. “That’s just how they do it. So hopefully we can find some identity. We’re inexperienced. We have a couple of sophomores and juniors. We’ve just got to learn fast.”

There were some mixed first impressions of the newer faces on Tuesday. First Flight scored 20 or more points in three of four quarters. The Panthers struggled to guard the perimeter and allowed the Nighthawks to score 15 long-range shots.

The offense came together a bit in the second half. Northside scored 20 points in the third period after earning 19 in the whole first half.

“They did some really good things and some things that weren’t the best in the world,” Proctor said. “They turned the ball over and missed some key shots, but they did some good things, too.”

Washington provides a contrast. Seniors Clinton Pope and Brandon Jackson are among the senior leaders on the team while juniors Shaiquan Moore, Sharwan Staton and Tyshawn Cobb have stepped up in a big way, too.

The important thing for Northside is to remain confident amidst these early-season challenges. Washington has opened the season with four consecutive losses, but has a lot of things sorted out that the Panthers are still getting ahold of. This sort of trial-by-fire to begin the season will pay dividends later on.

That said, a win over the rival Pam Pack would be a cornerstone for the Panthers to build on throughout the non-conference portion of the season.

“We have to get back on defense better than we did (at First Flight),” Proctor said. “They push the ball and play really fast. We’re going to have to defend transition … Offensively, we’re going to have to make some shots and make the extra pass.”

This game is the first half of a home-and-home series between the two. Washington will host the second leg on Dec. 11.