No pressure kid, just go out and do that again.

In his first varsity start Friday night at Wheaton North, Geneva junior David Udoiwod had the game of his life, knocking down five 3-pointers in the first half on his way to a career-best 32 points as the Vikings picked up a key DuKane Conference victory by holding off the Falcons 63-57.

Afterward, Geneva coach Scott Hennig told his guard to “do it again.”

Filling in for 6-foot-7 senior Kyle Suger, who injured his elbow in Tuesday’s game against Glenbard North, Udoiwod just wanted to chip in as best as he could. He wasted no time in heating up, tallying 10 points as the Vikings (12-3, 5-1) jumped out to a 20-9 lead after one quarter. He added a trio of 3s in the second quarter as the visitors led 41-28 at the half.

“In warmups I wasn’t hitting 3s but every shot [in the game] it just felt good, so I kept shooting them,” said Udoiwod, who has been the team’s sixth man most of this season. “That’s why we practice them. It’s my first game starting so I appreciate coach giving me the opportunity.”

Geneva needed the fast start because Wheaton North kept chipping away at the Vikings’ lead and made things quite interesting in the fourth quarter.

Baskets by Ben Gillmar and Burke Neibch pulled the Falcons to within 50-46 early in the fourth quarter and the lead shrunk to as little as two points following a step-back 3 from Ryder Froebe and a fastbreak basket by Henry Schlickman in the final minute.

But Udoiwod hit 5 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter to help fend off the Falcons’ rally.

“It was a great win. There was a full crowd and I’m just happy we came out with the win,” Udoiwod said. “There’s a lot of pressure to keep this up. … We’ve got a game tomorrow, so we’ll just keep on pushing.”

The Vikings defense gave extra attention to Schlickman, who didn’t score until that final minute. But Gillmar and Neibch picked up the slack as the Falcons made a strong run in the second half. Gillmar finished the game with 21 points and nine rebounds and Neibch added 10 points.

“Obviously Geneva’s a good team and credit to them. They got out to a hot start and they hit a ton of shots early and we were chasing,” Falcons coach David Eaton said. “They got 21 points in the first and 20 in the second, and we’ve got to do a better job of defending. In the second half we contained it better and we were able to battle back.”

Hennig was not surprised at all to see the Falcons make a strong run at his Vikings.

“That’s what they do,” Hennig said. “They come at you. Their defense is outstanding. Dave Eaton and their staff has them playing really, really hard. I am super impressed with how hard they play. It’s a credit to the coaches, it’s a credit to the kids.”

But Geneva deserves a little credit as well.

“We shot the ball really well,” Hennig added. “I thought our kids played really hard. We had to manage foul trouble. We lost one of our starters on Tuesday, and I give our guys a lot of credit. They competed and they hit their free throws. I thought we shot the ball extremely well in the first half.”

Gillmar, like his coach, knows the Falcons can’t come out and struggle in the first half of games against tough opponents.

“We just can’t come out that flat. That’s happened in a lot of our losses. We just got to work on that. Offensively in the second half we were more aggressive and we’ve got to work on that as well,” Gillmar said.