Bryce Heard is merely a name to most high school basketball fans. He was highly touted, flashed brief glimpses of quality in his limited minutes at Kenwood freshman year…and then he was gone, off to a prep school.
Heard is back. His arrival this year at Homewood-Flossmoor instantly vaulted the Vikings into the upper echelon of the area, and we will have an entire season to learn more about the nationally ranked, 6-6 junior.
The first showcase moment of Homewood-Flossmoor’s season came on Wednesday in the annual Thanksgiving Eve rivalry game at Marian Catholic.
The Vikings’ fanbase is pumped for the season and it showed. There were more H-F fans than Spartans’ fans in the Marian Catholic gym, which was likely a first.
“I love the community coming out to support us,” Heard said. “It was great to see my family in the stands and everyone with so much energy.”
Heard scored 17 points to lead the No. 4 Homewood-Flossmoor to a 55-41 victory over Marian Catholic.
He drained several midrange jumpers on pretty moves. But the most eye-opening part of Heard’s game was his passing ability. He had six rebounds, a couple of blocks and several nice assists.
“Passing is a really underrated part of my game,” Heard said. “That wasn’t really my role at Kenwood so I didn’t show that. But I feel like I could eventually turn into a point guard in the right system.”
Heard was one of three high-profile transfers to join the Vikings. So far, everyone is fitting together well.
“It’s a good bond we have,” Heard said. “We’ve just been building swagger throughout the season. I feel good about it.”
The Vikings (3-0) led by 22 points late in the third quarter and appeared in control. Then Marian Catholic’s Zack Sharkey came alive.
Sharkey, a junior, scored nine points in four minutes. His layup with 4:26 to play cut H-F’s lead to 48-39. Vikings coach Jamere Dismukes was forced to bring Heard and Columbia-bound guard Gianni Cobb back into the game.
Homewood-Flossmoor leads Marian 16-7 after 1Q.
— Michael O'Brien (@michaelsobrien) November 22, 2023
Bryce Heard off to a quick start. A few pretty moves like this one already. pic.twitter.com/uxWMpaLWnR
Heard delivered with an assist and a post bucket to end the threat.
“Bryce is a playmaker,” Dismukes said. “He’s not just a scorer or a defender. He can do everything on the court than an elite high school player needs to do and a really good college player needs to do. A lot of people in Illinois haven’t seen this Bryce Heard.”
Cobb scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Vikings. Carson Brownfield had 14 points and seven rebounds and Jayden Tyler added seven points, six rebounds and three steals. Five H-F players had five or more rebounds.
“I’m definitely taking rebounding very seriously,” Brownfield said. “Rebounding and defense is going to win us games. We need to get every 50/50 ball and everything that comes off the glass.”
Senior Jonah Weathers led the Spartans (2-1) with 18 points and six rebounds and Sharkey finished with 13 points.
“We’re trying to build trust and figure out our rotation,” first-year Marian Catholic coach Rick Romeli said. “We have a lot of young guys that haven’t played varsity minutes. We have some guys that can put it in the hole. It didn’t look like that tonight, but we will figure it out.”
