End Brings Focus
Heard, Tigers Desperate To Keep Season Going
Austin Heard of Bentonville takes the ball to the basket during the Tigers’ game Jan. 22 at Tiger Arena in Bentonville. Heard has been a three-year starter and done his part in helping Bentonville reach the Class 7A State Tournament all three seasons.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
BENTONVILLE — Austin Heard realizes the end of his high school basketball career is almost here, and it can provide motivation and desperation at the same time.
The Bentonville senior guard wants to play well so he can go out on a positive note, yet he’s not ready to see it end, either.
“That’s a very thin line,” Heard said when asked about the two. “It’s always on your mind. It definitely weighs on your mind.
“I even think about it before I go to sleep. It’s like ‘Wow, we have two practices and one game.’ Nothing is guaranteed. This could be the end of it all right here.”
At A Glance
Class 7A State Tournament
Wednesday’s Games
GAME 1: C4 Conway vs. W5 Van Buren, 2:30 p.m.
GAME 2: W3 Bentonville vs. C6 Little Rock Central, 5:30 p.m.
GAME 3: W4 Bryant vs. C5 Cabot, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday’s Games
GAME 4: C3 West Memphis vs. W6 Rogers High, 2:30 p.m.
GAME 5: W1 Fayetteville vs. Winner Game 1, 5:30 p.m.
GAME 6: C2 Fort Smith Northside vs. Winner Game 2, 8:30 p.m.
Friday’s Games
GAME 7: C1 North Little Rock vs. Winner Game 3, 5:30 p.m.
GAME 8: W2 Springdale High vs. Winner Game 4, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
GAME 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 1:30 p.m.
GAME 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 7:30 p.m.
Championship
at Barton Coliseum, Little Rock
GAME 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, date and time TBA
Heard has been a three-year starter and done his part in helping Bentonville reach the Class 7A State Tournament all three seasons. He enters postseason play second on the team in scoring with a 16 point-per-game average — including a career-high 38 points in a game against Gravette — and in rebounding with a 4.3 average.
Bentonville coach Jason McMahan admits it will be strange next season when he doesn’t have Heard adorning the Tigers’ No. 12 jersey.
“He’s such a good player, but I think most of all, we’ll miss that leadership that he’s provided this year,” McMahan said. “It’s just hard to imagine that personality not being in our practices, and we’ll miss him.”
A glance at Heard’s statistics easily show areas where he showed improvement this season. His scoring, shooting percentage and rebounding numbers increased, and he also bettered his assist-to-turnover ratio by a noticeable margin.
His biggest improvement, however, can’t be found in statistics. McMahan said he addressed Heard well before the season started about the need for the senior to play a bigger leadership role, particularly on the vocal side, and the senior responded.
“This group of guys, we have formed a nice core, with Nick and I as the leaders,” he said, referring to teammate Nick Smith. “They really follow and listen to us, and when games are about to slip away, we’re able to get things together and get the win.
“I pretty much did (McMahan) needed. If we need points, I’ll score. If he needed more defense in a game, I was more than happy to do it.”