With the amount of experience that senior forward Hudson Kirby brings to the table, Geneva coach Scott Hennig has decided to lean on his 6-foot-6 standout during big games.
And Hennig has no qualms putting the ball in Kirby’s hands.
“I expect a lot out of him,” Hennig said. “We have a great relationship. I’m proud of him.”
Hennig gave Kirby the keys Wednesday night, and he delivered yet again.
Kirby led all scorers with 22 points, helping the Vikings pull away in the third quarter for a 59-43 win over Wheaton Warrenville South in a Class 4A St. Charles East Sectional semifinal.
Kirby also came up with 12 rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots and two steals for the second-seeded Vikings (29-4), who face top-seeded Glenbard West (27-5) at 7 p.m. Friday for the sectional title. Gabe Jensen added 15 points.
Luca Carbonaro, the DuKane Conference’s player of the year, ended up with 18 points for Wheaton Warrenville South (26-8). Brady McClatchy scored 12 points.
Even though Tigers — and everybody in the gym — knew Geneva was going to run things through Kirby, his prowess in the high post still caused fits.
If facing a double-team situation, Kirby will kick the ball out to a shooter for a 3-pointer. If the defense sags off him, he’ll use a full bag of creative moves to get to the basket.
“I definitely think my foot fake is pretty quick,” Kirby said. “I can go right or left. I killed them from the right before. In practice this week, we had drills where I specifically went left in the high post.
“That helped a ton. We were hitting shots, so they had to only put one person on me. That was a huge help.”
Geneva shot 9 of 21 from 3-point range as a team, which opened things up even more for Kirby. Jensen and Nelson Wendell each hit three 3-pointers for the Vikings.
After the Tigers cut the deficit to 26-22 to open the third, Kirby led a 13-4 burst that pushed the lead to 39-26 with 3:02 left in the quarter. Kirby scored 10 of those points in that run.
He also had an assist on Wendell’s 3-pointer.
“I just knew what they were going to do the whole time,” Kirby said. “I knew they were going to send somebody to double. I looked them off because we have shooters.
“I know they can make anything. I looked them off and I knew I would be one-on-one. The shooters helped with that.”
That’s what Wheaton Warrenville South coach Mike Healy lamented after the game — the whole pick-your-poison aspect to defending the Vikings.
“When they’re shooting the ball the way they shot it and they have Hudson in the middle, you have to think about what you’re going to do,” Healy said. “We were doubling him early, and he was kicking it out and they were hitting the three.
“They’re really good when they play like that.”
The decisive run in the third quarter came after Hennig made some halftime adjustments.
“He did a really good job in the high post,” Hennig said of Kirby. “I didn’t do a good job of getting him the ball enough in the first half. That was a point of emphasis at halftime.
“He played really well. He’s got such great touch and feel and body control. I tell people all the time that he’s not above the rim or a state sprinter but he’s scary athletic.”
It’s not the first time Kirby will play in a sectional final. He was on Geneva’s team that reached the Sweet 16 when he was a sophomore. It’s the first time he will face Glenbard West, however.
“Glenbard West runs a 1-3-1, so we’ve had some experience against it,” Kirby said of the zone defense. “We know what we need to do to beat it. I think it’s going to be a fun challenge.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.