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LaBrae grad Aldridge stuffs stat sheet for Davidson
PITTSBURGH
Admittedly, LaBrae High School graduate Peyton Aldridge didn’t expect to play much in his freshman year at Davidson College.
On Saturday night in Pittsburgh, the Wildcats wrapped up their first regular season in the Atlantic 10 conference with a showcase performance against Duquesne University. In the middle of it all was Aldridge making his 29th consecutive start in front of hundreds of friends and family at the A.J. Palumbo Center.
“This is incredible,” Aldridge said after a 107-78 win over the Dukes to earn the A10 regular season title.
“I was just coming in hoping to play a little bit. When I found out I was going to be starting I was so thankful and just worked hard every single day.”
He capped off his first regular season with a performance his coach says is typical for the 6-foot-7 forward. He scored seven points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out five assists, blocked three shots and had one steal. And oh by the way, he played 34 minutes without a turnover.
“We knew,” Davidson head coach Bob McKillop said of Aldridge’s potential. “This guy fit our program perfectly. He’s been tremendous for us. His basketball IQ — everything.
“I mean he fills up the stat sheet with only taking five shots.”
It was the closest game the Wildcats played all season to Aldridge’s hometown of Leavittsburg, so plenty of friends and family made the short trip to see him play. His former basketball coach Chad Kiser — who said he still texts Aldridge after each game — was in attendance, along with many of his former Vikings teammates.
His parents, Rick and Lisa, were also there, but seeing their son play is nothing new to them. They estimated Saturday night was the 20th Davidson game they’ve been to this year.
“We’ve been traveling every weekend to see Peyton,” Lisa said. “If it’s a weekend game, we’re there.
“The car has that route to Davidson memorized,” Rick added with a smile.
And it wasn’t difficult to spot the Aldridge supporters. They had shirts custom-made that could be spotted throughout the gymnasium. Lisa guessed 150-200 people made the trip to support her son.
“Over about a three-day period we were able to collect 72 shirts and that just wasn’t even touching the amount of people that told us they were coming,” she said. “It just shows there’s a lot of people that like Peyton and [have] watched his career develop.”
Despite the extra attention, Aldridge didn’t miss a beat. He hit his first shot of the game and finished 3-for-5 from the field. He also a knocked down a 3-pointer — one of a school-record 20 the Wildcats made in the game — and threw down a dunk for good measure.
“I just try and do whatever’s best for the team,” Aldridge said. “Sometimes it’s scoring a little bit, rebounding. Whatever’s needed — it doesn’t matter.”
While his first season has been more successful than he could’ve ever hoped for, Aldridge isn’t done yet. And neither are the Wildcats. They finished the regular season 23-6 and 14-10 in the A10. They’ve almost certainly wrapped up an NCAA tournament berth, barring an early exit from the league tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., next week.
“I’ve had so much fun with the guys playing the game we love and just enjoying it with the people,” Aldridge said. “On any given day anyone can beat anybody, so we’re going to go out, take each game at a time and see what happens.
“But we’re not done yet.”