His little brother, who’s not so little, got the deep red hair that many would envy and also was blessed with a quarterback’s arm.

AJ Berndt, Cary-Grove’s senior point guard, is 6 foot 2 with a lean physique. He guesses his brother Jackson, a thick 6-3 sophomore who quarterbacked the football team to two playoff wins this fall, got the hair color from his grandparents.

“I didn’t get that red,” AJ Berndt said.

Big brother did get a jump shot. Like little brother, who’s his basketball teammate, AJ Berndt can aim a ball, compete and lead a team to victory.

He showed that again Wednesday night, pacing Cary-Grove to a 59-52 win over visiting Crystal Lake South in a Fox Valley Conference opener. Berndt posted career bests of 26 points and seven 3-pointers as the Trojans beat the Gators for the first time since what coach Adam McCloud thinks was the COVID-19-shortened 2021 season.

“I’ve never beaten them, so it’s a big game for us,” said AJ Berndt, who’s been a varsity player since his sophomore year.

Adam Bauer had 14 points, including a fast break dunk, and five rebounds for C-G (4-1).

Carson Trivellini scored a team-high 20 points for South (1-4), which lost only five games all of last season while earning a share of the FVC title with McHenry, after going 18-0 in the conference the previous season.

“We just talked about it in the locker room,” Gators coach Matt LePage said. “You’re going to get everybody’s best punch, no matter what, in the conference, so tonight was a good indicator of how hard you got to go. We don’t have a lot of seniors, so you have to have that extra effort against good squads like these guys that are experienced.”

Berndt has played like a veteran early in the season. He had his best game against South, going 7 of 9 from 3-point range. He was actually only 2 of 6 from inside the arc.

“It’s weird how it works sometimes,” Berndt said of his shooting. “I didn’t shoot as well as I would have liked to in the [Johnsburg] Thanksgiving tournament, but it came around today, which is nice.”

Trivellini shot 4 of 4, including a 3-pointer, in helping stake South to a 16-11 lead after one quarter. Berndt’s three 3s and 11 second quarter points had the Trojans up 29-26 at halftime. He drained another 3-pointer in the third, while Brandon Freund and Dylan Dumele each hit one.

“Trivellini was hot,” McCloud said. “We know he’s one of the best players in the league, but we felt sustaining that level of shooting was going to be tough for him with how we were guarding him. We said, ‘Keep running him around, keep making him work for everything, and we’d be OK.’ ”

Berndt helped the Trojans finish the game after a Trivellini drive got the Gators to within 52-45 with 2:28 left in the fourth. Berndt buried a left-wing 3-pointer and then hit another 3, this one from the left corner off an inbounds play, to extend the C-G lead to 58-45 with 1:24 to go.

“AJ is incredible,” McCloud said. “He’s incredible to coach. He lives for this moment. He doesn’t back down. He’s always calm.”

Nick Stowasser added 12 points (three 3s) for South, which also got eight points apiece from Noah Cook (seven rebounds) and Ryan Morgan (five rebounds). Cook flushed a dunk at the final buzzer after Berndt split two free throws.

“We’ve been in some good fights,” said LePage, whose Gators wrapped up the Johnsburg Thanksgiving tournament with a six-point loss to Barrington. “This was a telltale game where we’ve been in games that we just can’t close. You got to give Berndt credit for hitting a lot of big shots there. You could tell a lot of those guys wanted it. They played a little more physical than us and were a little quicker to the ball.”

Freund and Dumele each had six points on two 3-pointers each.

“I think we’re just moving the ball really well together, playing as a team,” Berndt said. “Guys are picking each other up when things aren’t going well, and the coaches have great game plans to keep us going.”