Homewood-Flossmoor’s talent was unquestioned heading into the season. The Vikings had excellent players returning from last year and several players transferred home from other schools and other states.
The issue was going to be assembling all that ability into a cohesive team. Could Jamere Dismukes, the young coach, find a way to merge so many shooters and ballhandlers?
The results after 20 games are impressive. No. 2 Homewood-Flossmoor beat No. 7 Downers Grove North 59-51 on Saturday in the When Sides Collide Shootout at Benet in Lisle. The Vikings are 19-1 and unbeaten against Illinois teams.
“From the outside it may have looked easy getting this all together but from the inside it has been tough,” Dismukes said. “It’s been a grind because we have a lot of alpha young men on this team. So getting them to play together, getting them to believe in each other and our system hasn’t been easy.”
Homewood-Flossmoor won the Big Dipper Holiday Tournament and has defeated nine ranked teams this year. The only loss was a 30-point defeat to Gonzaga, D.C. at the Chicago Elite Classic.
“We’ve been going through growing pains while still winning,” Dismukes said. “That’s the lucky part about it. Every practice is a growing pain and there’s always a new issue we are trying to get over.”
Downers Grove North (17-4) provided a different type of challenge. The Trojans are tall and defensively rugged and feature Princeton recruit Jack Stanton, one of the state’s best shooters.
“[Stanton] had a great game but we were able to keep it under control,” H-F senior Gianni Cobb said. “We rebounded and defended and got the job done.”
Stanton led the Vikings with 21 points. He was 7-for-12 from three-point range.
Cobb, a Columbia recruit, stepped up for H-F in the game’s crucial moment. Downers Grove North led 31-25 midway through the third quarter and with Stanton hot, were threatening to pull away.
Cobb got to the line for two free throws and then made two three-pointers. The Vikings never trailed again after those eight consecutive points.
“I just stepped up,” Cobb said. “I had to be the bigger player that the team needed.”
Cobb finished with 22 points and senior Carson Brownfield added 16 points and five rebounds. Junior JD Tyler contributed eight points and highly-recruited junior Bryce Heard scored seven.
“Gianni is huge,” Dismukes said. “He’s been doing it all year. When he doesn’t lead us in scoring he’s rebounding or doing whatever it takes.”
Homewood-Flossmoor has played one of the state’s toughest schedules already and it isn’t letting up. The Vikings still have games against Bradley-Bourbonnais, Thornton, Lincoln-Way East and Bolingbrook.
Despite all the success, Homewood-Flossmoor hasn’t yet taken over the No. 1 spot at any point this season. The Vikings have been edged out by Curie.
“We don’t talk about rankings,” Dismukes said. “We want to be ranked No. 1 at the end of the year. And this group is talented enough and disciplined enough to do so.