When Plainfield East boys basketball coach Kanwer Sarkaria had a freshman named Alijah Little in his geography class, he noticed that Little was having trouble seeing the lesson on the board even though he was sitting in the front row.

Sarkaria asked Little if he wore glasses or contacts, and Little told him he did. Little came to school the next day with contacts in.

“I told him that he was going to see something he hadn’t seen before,” Sarkaria said. “The rim.”

Little is now a senior for the Bengals, and he had his contacts in Tuesday night. He led East to a hard-fought 40-36 win over District 202 and Southwest Prairie Conference rival Plainfield North by scoring 13 points, grabbing seven rebounds and handing out four assists.

He was at his best in the fourth quarter. The Tigers led 29-26 entering the fourth, but KJ Miller (8 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists) tied the game with a 3-pointer with 6:38 to play. That started an 11-0 run that featured a pair of baskets by Little, one off an assist from Miller and one on a putback. Danny Sepulveda (10 points) scored on a putback and a pair of free throws in the run that put East ahead 37-29 with 2:51 to play.

“I like to say that I have a great starter in KJ and a great closer in Alijah,” Sarkaria said. “Those two are quite a combination.

“This was a tough game. You have to give credit to [Plainfield North coach] Bob [Krahulik] and his kids. Not only did they know what we wanted to do, but those kids played with a lot of grit. This early in the season, the process matters more than the results. Any win is a good win, but we are still up and down at times. We have a lot of potential.”

Plainfield North (2-6, 0-3) stayed right with the bigger, faster Bengals by employing tight man-to-man defense and running a deliberate offense. It kept the game close, as neither team had more than a five-point lead until East’s fourth-quarter spurt. Little converted a three-point play in the first quarter to give East a 9-4 lead, but North’s Carson Miller, who led the team with 11 points, hit a 3-pointer to make it 9-7 at the end of the first.

The Tigers started the second quarter with a free throw by Anthony Beringer before Miller drained a 3-pointer to give them their first lead at 11-9. Sepulveda followed with a basket to tie it before North’s Jacob Wnek (10 points) hit a 3-pointer to put his team ahead 14-11. The game was tied at 18 in the final minute of the first half before East’s Justin Paszkowski hit a 3-pointer to send the Bengals into halftime with a 21-18 lead.

East got out to a 26-23 lead late in the third quarter, but North got a basket by Jaylan Aofolaju to make it 26-25, and then Wnek hit a floater in the lane with 37 seconds remaining for a 27-26 North lead. After an East turnover, Judah Kalvig put back his own miss at the buzzer to send his team into the fourth with the 29-26 lead.

“The kids executed our game plan very well,” Krahulik said. “We doubled the ball screens, played physical defense and rotated well all night. We lost all five starters from last year, so a lot of our guys are playing their first real varsity minutes this year.

“We had some trouble with their pressure in the fourth, and we’ve had trouble with that all year due to our lack of experience. But we are getting better every game, and we haven’t played an easy schedule. We’ve seen Oswego East, Wheaton Academy and Plainfield East, all of whom have a Division I recruit. The kids are getting more and more confidence. We just have to find a way to put them in good positions to succeed.”

When told of Sarkaria’s assessment of him and Miller, Little agreed with his coach.

“KJ is a great playmaker,” Little said. “I am usually at my best in the fourth quarter, and I know he is going to find me with a pass.

“We feel like we can be big in this conference this year. It’s kind of a turnaround year for us. I wasn’t here last year; I was at Whitney Young. But I am back now, and we are ready to be contenders.”