'They’ve put Auburn on the map:' Kaden Hansen, Tre Blassingame lead No. 2 Trojans to program-first WIAA 3A state basketball title
TACOMA, Wash. — Kaden Hansen and Tre Blassingame made a beeline toward their student section after the final horn sounded.
First Blassingame, then Hansen leapt onto the scorer’s table, slid two thumbs under each end of the name “Auburn” on their jerseys, and lifted the letters up.
For the first time in its more than 115-year history, Auburn High School’s basketball program was crowned state champions, cemented by a 58-48 win over Rainier Beach at the Tacoma Dome Saturday.
And better yet, they were the ones to do it — a dream many of the team’s seven seniors set out to achieve somewhere amidst playing with one another going back to when they were in grade school.
"They’ve been dreaming about this forever,” Auburn coach Ryan Hansen said. “I’ve coached those guys, it’s emotional. Those guys have been special. Real special. They’ve put Auburn on the map, and they’re going to be a part of history forever at Auburn High School.”
On the No. 2 Trojans’ path toward triumph, it had to survive a murderer’s row. The WIAA Class 3A state basketball trophy runs through the Metro League. Only twice in the league’s nine-year run atop the state has a non-Metro League team even competed for a title (Mt. Spokane, 2019).
Two years ago, Ryan Hansen knew his young group — particularly his 2022 class — that was bounced from the first round of the 4A state tournament faced a tall task if they were to do it before they graduated.
The Trojans were moving down to 3A in the next WIAA classification cycle. And the 3A trophy ran through Seattle’s vaunted cast of state powers.
“It’s a tough league, there’s no doubt about it. It is every year. We kinda wanted it that way,” Ryan Hansen said. “We were intentional about. scheduling Metro teams in our season. And if you look at the top five teams in the Metro, we played all five, beat all five.”
Auburn, SBLive’s preseason favorite and the No. 2 seed entering the tournament, defeated No. 1 Garfield in the quarterfinals — a long-awaited rematch that came earlier than expected after Auburn lost to Mt. Spokane in the regional round.
It cleared Braeden Smith and No. 5 Seattle Prep in the state semifinals Friday. And on Saturday, it took down eight-time state champion-winning coach Mike Bethea and No. 4 Rainier Beach.
But not without a fight.
Maleek Arington hit a pair of third quarter 3s to help Auburn take a 10-point lead into the fourth. The Vikings cut into it with a series of self-inflicted wounds on Auburn’s part. With 2:08 left, the Trojans committed an intentional foul, a personal foul and a technical in rapid succession.
Beach hit 3 of the 6 free throws to cut the lead to 52-46.
Then Blassingame dropped in a baseline floater over Josh Conerly Jr., senior Dae’Kwon Watson was blindsided by an illegal screen on the other end, and the Trojans held on.
“We’re just a big family, man,” Watson said. “We’ve wanted it all those years 7th, 8th grade we won state in middle school, and look at us now — won state our senior year, our last game.”
Kaden Hansen shook off some early-tournament shooting woes and had his best game of the week. He led all scorers with 19 points, and hit 3 of 7 3-point attempts to get there. Blassingame had 17 points and nine boards and the Trojans shot 55 percent from the field in the second half.
“Honestly, my legs weren’t feeling good the first couple days, but it’s the state championship, you’ve got to be here,” said Hansen, a Saint Martin’s pledge. “You either show out, or you don’t.”
Rainier Beach may not have had the type of future college and NBA-level talent spectators in the Tacoma Dome have been used to seeing over the better part of head coach Mike Bethea’s 28 years, but these Vikings were no slouch.
They finished Metro League runners-up. They spent the month of January without Bethea, who was hospitalized with a severe case of COVID.
O Saturday, they were led by senior Nahmier Robinson’s 17 points and 12 points and eight boards from 6-foot-5 senior Josh Conerly, who is a five-star offensive line prospect.
For Bethea, this year’s group had characteristics that none of his 12 other teams that reached the state title stage.
“We weren’t supposed to be here,” Bethea said. “The fact that we went as far as we went, with the adversity we went through, we gave ourselves an opportunity to do something, it just didn’t come through. It wasn’t our night.”
---Andy Buhler; @AndyBuhler.
