Auburn basketball falls to Puyallup in district semifinal
Published 3:00 pm Friday, February 20, 2026
Heading into their West Central District semifinal matchup, both Auburn (21-3) and Puyallup (20-6) looked like state title contenders. Auburn had looked like one of the best 4A teams in the state all year, while Puyallup was last year’s Cinderella story, making it all the way to the 4A championship as the No. 8 seed.
Expectations were at an all-time high as fans filtered into Auburn High School on Feb. 19 for a late 8 p.m. tip-off. The game was memorable for all spectators in attendance, not because it was a classic high octane contest, but because Auburn looked outmatched for the first time in a long time inside their own gymnasium.
The Trojans fell to Puyallup 76-58 and were out of the game pretty much by the 2:30 mark in the second quarter. Auburn hasn’t lost by 18 or more points since the last state tournament consolation game to Camas (64-40).
“We are the one seed coming into the district tournament. We are going to get everyone’s best shot. Hats off to Puyallup, they came out and threw the first punch and our kids didn’t respond real well to it. They were able to pour it on us in the second half,” head coach Ryan Hansen said.
Puyallup came into this game after a nail-biting win over Kentridge in the previous round where those two teams went to the fourth quarter tied up. But in the game against Auburn, the Vikings threw the first punch and Auburn had no answer.
“We stressed coming into this game that the tougher team was going to win and Puyallup was the tougher team,” Hansen said.
Auburn was behind 20-12 at the end of the first quarter, still in the game with talent like Daniel Johnson, Isaiah Englund and Miles Henry. But the second quarter was where Auburn fell apart, and Puyallup stood there with a sledgehammer in hand.
“They had lots of energy and were physical. They were able to get into their stuff and get to the glass. They made a statement that they were going to come out and give us their best game,” Hansen said of Puyallup.
As a team, the Vikings put up 25 points in the second, their largest of the game. Six different Vikings recorded a field goal and three different Puyallup players made a 3-pointer. Auburn on the other hand had their worst quarter of the game, scoring just 11 points. England’s four free throws were the most points an Auburn player scored in the second quarter.
Auburn went to the locker rooms and the gym had a confusing energy about it. Puyallup’s student section was larger than the Auburn student section, despite the game being played at Auburn. The Auburn home crowd didn’t know how to respond to a halftime deficit of 24 points. and the Puyallup crowd was befuddled as to how well their team had handled the No. 1 seed in the district.
In the second half, Auburn got a spark thanks to Miles Henry hitting a pair of 3-pointers, but Auburn could just never get enough stops on the defensive side of the floor to mount any sort of comeback. Mason Sonntag and Will Nasinec’s 20 point performances put Auburn behind the eight ball all night, and Emmanuel Rogers tried to get his team going in the second half but to no avail.
“Emmanuel is so solid for us. He’s fearless, he’s a great energy guy and an unselfish teammate. He was trying to challenge the guys around him to play tougher. Defensively we weren’t good tonight and he was trying to get after guys and their defensive assignments. He was trying to will the guys around to play a bit harder,” Hansen said.
Englund had a team high 17 points followed by Henry with 14 and Rogers with 10 points. Auburn is now at the mercy of the seeding committee, which will reveal all 16 seeds on Feb. 22.
“I don’t think we want to move past it. We want to take away things we need to improve on. Maybe it’s a little bit of a wake-up call for our guys. We got to find a way to respond,” Hansen said. “There’s a lot to look forward to, but the margin of error is shrinking.”
