The three on the back of Nathan Palmer’s jersey was getting called quite a bit Wednesday night.

Although for the Geneva senior, it wasn’t just for the sake of calling his number.

More so, it was for the flurry of 3-pointers that were raining down on Wheaton Warrenville South.

The Vikings finished the night with 10 makes from behind the arc to pace the team to a 51-41 victory over the Tigers.

“That was a win that helps all of our confidence, for sure,” Palmer said. “Everyone came out and all the people coming off the bench were hitting clutch 3s for us, especially early on, and it helped us out in the game.”

Palmer accounted for half of the Vikings’ 3-pointers in the game, having five makes in his game-high 19-point effort. He also led the team with nine rebounds and five assists in just his second start in DuKane Conference play.

“I always want to help out all around, not just on offense,” Palmer said. “Coach (Scott Hennig) has been telling us that we need to rebound. It’s a pretty big emphasis, and we’ve just been working hard at it.”

The Vikings (6-0, 2-0 DuKane) wanted to establish the 3-point shot from the start of the contest, not getting off a two-point shot attempt until there was 1:30 remaining in the first half.

And it was for a good reason too. The Vikings finished the first half shooting 70% (7 of 10) from 3-point land, while also going 8 of 10 from the charity stripe to build a 29-18 lead into halftime. The Vikings ended the game with 19 of their 26 shots coming from deep.

“Shooting from the perimeter is a big strength of ours,” Hennig said. “I’m just super proud of the guys. WW South really brings out the best of us with how hard they play and how well they’re coached. But we’ve got guys that have the green light to shoot and I’m happy they made it happen.”

Senior Gabe Jensen led the threat in the first half, sinking three of his four shots from behind the arc and scoring 12 of his 17 points in the first half.

“I’ve just felt like I’ve been struggling from three at the beginning of the season,” Jensen said. “I knew I had to find my rhythm shooting from three, so I felt like if we came out firing and making shots, we could stick with that. And if not, we could move it inside.”

The Vikings further bolstered their advantage in the game through their trips to the charity stripe, outshooting the Tigers 19-5 in that department.

“A lot of them came from getting fouled on 3-pointers, but a big thing we focus on is getting to the free-throw line,” said Jensen, who made 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. “It’s free points for us, and when everything else isn’t working, we can rely on that for scoring.”

The 3-point flurry proved to be too much for the Tigers (2-3, 1-1), who finished with eight triples in the contest while also picking up 12 steals as a team.

“If you give up 10 3-pointers and also foul on 3-point shots three times, you’re probably not going to win,” Tigers coach Mike Healy said. “They just shot it really well and we didn’t respond until midway through the second quarter and it was just too big of a hole to get out of.”

Junior David Showman led the scoring effort for the Tigers with 17 points, which included sinking four triples. Senior Brady Robinson also had three made 3s from off of the bench.

“Showman did some good stuff for us on the glass and on the defensive end as well,” Healy said. “We know he can do some things for us on the offensive end and we just need to get better on both ends all around.”