District basketball tournaments underway. Auburn teams handle Spanaway Lake
· Yahoo Sports
Isaiah Englund soared through the air, grabbed the off-the-backboard alley-oop ball with two hands and threw it down. He hung on the rim a little too long for the liking of the official, drawing a technical foul.
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Auburn’s players laughed it off.
“That was one of the weakest calls,” Englund said after the game, laughing. “I was trying not to fall back on my head. That was weak, that was weak.”
Whether or not it was called, it wouldn’t have, and didn’t matter. Auburn, the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A District 3/4 tournament, was decimating No. 16 Spanaway Lake in the opening round of the tournament on Thursday night in Auburn.
The Trojans were throwing down highlight-reel dunks without a care in the world. It felt like an NBA All-Star Game.
England’s dunk made it 64-24 in favor of the Trojans, giving Auburn a 40-point lead in the third quarter, part of a dizzying rout at home. Auburn led 30-7 at the end of the first quarter and stretched the lead to 30 midway through the second quarter, forcing Spanaway Lake into countless turnovers with its high-energy full-court press.
“It was really important,” said Daniel Johnson, a 2025 TNT All-Area selection. “We came out hard, came out with lots of energy and just fought.”
Auburn Riverside transfer Leroy Kinnay and Miles Henry led the Trojans with 20 points apiece. Johnson scored 13 and Englund added 11.
“First playoff game, we want to come out with a lot of energy, get straight to it off the jump,” Englund said.
Auburn will host the winner of No. 8 Skyview and No. 9 Sumner next Tuesday in the tournament’s quarterfinal round.
“Gotta stay focused,” Henry said.
GIRLS: NO. 3 AUBURN 49, NO. 14 SPANAWAY LAKE 38
Before the boys tipped off, the Auburn girls coincidentally had the same matchup, facing Spanaway Lake in the bidistrict tournament opening round.
It wasn’t the cleanest game, but Auburn’s defense led to enough offense to come away with the win. Junior guard Avery Hansen, a two-time TNT All-Area selection, led the Trojans with 17 points. She didn’t feel it was Auburn’s best effort.
“I feel like we definitely could’ve come out harder,” she said. “We definitely overlooked the team that we played. Every game we should come out knowing it’s gonna be tough in the playoffs, just coming out harder.”
Still, a win is a win for the 3A NPSL champions, who played impressive basketball in the second half of the season. The Trojans defeated league rival Tahoma after getting clobbered in the first meeting of the regular season.
“Losing to them by a lot really shook us up,” Hansen said. “We feel like we were better than that and in the second half of the season, we played our best basketball. We really came together as a team.”
The return of senior post Ari Deloney has been a big lift for Jessica Hansen’s team. Deloney tore her ACL last June and has made a speedy comeback. While she’s not yet at 100 percent, she was a difference maker in the minutes she played on Thursday night, pouring in 14 points for Auburn.
“She’s been very humble,” Avery Hansen said of her teammate’s return to the floor in recent weeks. “She knows that her time is coming and she’s very hungry. She’s been sitting out for so long, she just knows that her opportunity is coming.”
Auburn faces No. 6 Skyview in the next round, while Spanaway Lake heads to the consolation ladder and will face No. 11 Bethel in a loser-out game.