Hudson Kirby sinks go-ahead free throw with 2.5 seconds left to help Geneva defeat Wheaton Warrenville South

GENEVA – Geneva senior Hudson Kirby has made it a priority this season to get better at the free-throw line.

After struggling early in the season from the charity stripe, the Wisconsin-Parkside commit has made it a priority of his to get better at the charity stripe to further elevate his game.

So when he got to the line with 2.5 seconds left and the score tied at 29-29 against Wheaton Warrenville South, he knew that he had to at least sink one shot to put his team ahead.

His first shot – a swish to give the Vikings the lead.

The second shot? Not so lucky, as it bounced off the rim before landing in the arms of the Tigers, giving them one last shot with 1.6 seconds left.

“I couldn’t decide if it was better or worse that I missed it,” said Kirby, who scored eight of his game-high 17 points off free throws. “We knew if they caught it short, then someone would have to heave it. But if they went long, either me or Jack (Hatton) would get it.

“There was a little risk, but we wanted to push them back there and wanted them to catch it as far away as they can.”

It ended up being better, as the Tigers last-ditch heave from half court went wide of the net as the buzzer rang, as the Vikings secured a low-scoring 30-29 victory to remain perfect in DuKane Conference play.

“I just thought it was an outstanding game between two teams at the top of the league,” said Geneva coach Scott Hennig, who celebrated his 150th career win after the game. “I’m just proud of our ability to stay with the ball in a drag-out game. That’s what you get in a Geneva-Wheaton [Warrenville] South, and it’s been a really fun rivalry over the last several years.”

Besides Kirby, Hatton had all three of Geneva’s 3-pointers on the night, including one with 6:20 left on the clock to put the Vikings up 26-23. His 3 ended up being the last made field goal for the Vikings on the night.

After that, Geneva (18-4 overall, 8-0 DuKane conference) turned its focus to locking down on defense – and wasting clock on offense.

“On defense, you’ve just got to give props to these guys,” Hatton said. “They work their butts off all the time and give it their all, even when they’re tired. And on offense, attacking a good defensive team like South is tough. Once we got the lead, we didn’t want to force any turnovers, so we just sort of held onto the ball as much as we could.”

Much like the first matchup between the two teams back on Dec. 6, the Vikings focused their defense on locking down WW South senior Luca Carbonaro. And for the most part, it worked, holding the standout to only six points.

“I feel like Luca’s been around for a decade,” Hennig said. “He’s such a good player and he plays so hard. So I hope he respects that what we’re doing to him is out of respect to his abilities.”

But despite the handicap, WW South (16-5, 6-2) managed to keep it a close contest, with senior Brady Goken putting up 10 points in the first half to give them a 19-16 lead into halftime and Sean Doherty hitting a corner 3 with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 29-29.

And after suffering a much more lopsided 52-34 defeat in its first contest against Geneva, WW South coach Mike Healy said he couldn’t have been more proud of the effort that his team put forth on the court.

“Their attitude to get to this point and do what they did to be a lot more competitive, I just felt like we’ve got some really tough kids,” Healy said. “It’s not the end of the world, it’s not our last game. We’re all hurting a little bit, and sometimes hurting can be a good thing, as long as you’ve got games left. We’ve got nothing to be sad about here, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”