Aylsworth Sees Plan Develop Into Trip
Lehigh, a Patriot League school in Bethlehem, Pa., normally plays the likes of Harvard and Yale in nonleague basketball games.
What prompted the Mountain Hawks to come all the way to Malibu to play Pepperdine on Monday night?
A better question is who prompted them?
Steve Aylsworth, a Lehigh senior guard, grew up in Malibu and attended Westlake High. He spent the last few summers at home working at basketball camps at Pepperdine.
One day, Aylsworth and Lorenzo Romar, the Pepperdine coach at the time, hatched a plan.
“I asked Lorenzo about it a few times and finally he said, ‘Let’s schedule a game.’ ” Aylsworth said.
Romar now is the coach at Saint Louis, but Aylsworth, who flew west Friday so he could spend New Year’s Eve with his family, is here.
“I helped organize it, and here we are,” Aylsworth said. “Lorenzo is gone but the game remains.”
Because classes at Pepperdine are not in session and most students have left campus, Ayls-worth’s family and friends nearly outnumbered fans of the Waves.
Aylsworth’s basketball and football coaches at Westlake, Gary Grayson and Jim Benkert, were among those cheering him during Pepperdine’s 83-38 victory.
Aylsworth, whose brother and father are Lehigh graduates, scored five points and had three of the Mountain Hawks’ four assists. He averages 6.5 points and 4.6 assists.
