Auburn boys weather Renton storm in first meeting since 2013

Published 4:52 pm Monday, December 1, 2025

Auburn High School has real expectations this season to be great, a team that was the No. 2 seed in the state tournament last season, but fell short of expectations, missing out on a state trophy.

This year, Auburn is back and better, retooled and ready to go. Renton High School was the most recent recipient of a resilient and dynamic Auburn Trojan boys basketball team as the Trojans defeated Renton, 87-74, on Nov. 28.

When you play Auburn inside the Bob Jones Gymnasium, you have one shot, and you better not miss. Renton came out and oozed confidence in the first quarter. In the Redhawks’ first game of the season, they came out firing. Renton made their first four shots from the floor and sprung out to an 8-0 lead.

“That’s the game sometimes. I thought our start was a direct result of how we warmed up. I didn’t think we really warmed up with any sense of urgency and it translated to a bad start for us. We got good looks, but they didn’t drop, and we let their guys get loose a little bit,” Head Coach Ryan Hansen said.

Eventually, Renton led 25-22 at the end of the first quarter and there was a strange aura inside the gym. But this is nothing new to Auburn. The Trojans have a way of allowing teams to gain confidence and then, like a boa constrictor, suffocate their opponents and put them in a hole they can’t get out of.

“The message at halftime is we want to try and pride ourselves on the defensive end of the floor. I think we had too many breakdowns,” Hansen said.

That was what happened Friday night. Renton, full of energy, full of swagger, took an early lead, but Isaiah Englund and Daniel Johnson brought them down to Earth.

Auburn outscored the Redhawks 20-12 over the course of the second period. Englund finished with 28 points in the win, leading the way, and his aggressiveness put Auburn in the driver’s seat. Renton tried to draw charges all night and Auburn did a good job avoiding the charge, making the additional pass, or forcing the defender to slide and draw a blocking foul.

“At one point they had four guys with four fouls on the floor, so we were telling guys not to settle and attack the basket. They were really good at stepping up and trying to take charges. We did a good job of avoiding them and they tried to take ten and I didn’t think they got one,” Hansen said.

Sophomore Rainier Denoso scored six points in the last couple of minutes off the bench, and really caught fire in the second half as he finished with 20 points in just his second game of the season.

The second half was more of the same. Englund scored seven points in the third quarter, helping Auburn jump to a 60-53 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“He was a different kid this summer than he was last winter. He’s a lot better at attacking the basket and getting downhill. We raised his shot a little bit and he’s shooting it better. He’s just playing with more confidence and aggressiveness,” Hansen said.

Renton mounted a comeback to cut the lead to 10 at 70-60, but just as they have seemingly a hundred times before, Auburn found the hot hand, and it was Denoso in the fourth quarter with nine points.

“He had such a really good summer for us this year. He plays the game with a lot of confidence and is a really good shooter. We really challenged him to be better defensively and I think he accepted that challenge,” Hansen said.

Defensively, Hansen was frustrated and historically, the frustration is understandable. Renton’s 74 points was just the second time since 2021 that a team from Washington has scored 74 points (2021 O’Dea). Only Rancho Cucamonga (79 points in 2022) has scored more against Auburn.

“We gave up 37 in the first half and 74. That’s not Auburn basketball. A lot of credit to Renton. Any breakdown we had, they made us pay for it. We gotta get better defensively, this group. We gotta make sure that we take pride in it and play with urgency on that side of the floor,” Hansen said.

Auburn takes on Enumclaw Dec. 1 at home before opening up NPSL play with a big first test in the form of the Kentwood Conquerors on the road on Dec. 5.