HOUSTON—Asasha Lache Hall wasn’t in the stands at NRG Stadium to see her little brother become an instant NCAA tournament hero. But she was present.
Her picture is the screensaver on San Diego State guard Lamont Butler’s phone, and he believes her spirit was with him as he played—just as it’s been with him for the 14 months since his parents delivered him terrible news: Asasha had been murdered in her California home at age 30.
She would have adored this moment. Asasha had a knack for working her way down near courtside at Lamont’s home games, loud and proud of him and the rest of the Aztecs, one of his biggest supporters. “I miss her every day,” Butler says in the postgame locker room. “I wish she was here. But I’m doing this for her and for my family. I’m doing everything I can to make her happy.”
