It’s been a season of disappointment for Renton boys basketball so far this season and those emotions are beginning to boil over into frustration as the Redhawks fell to Woodinville 57-46 on Jan. 17 at home.

Renton scored just 11 points in the second half; a brutal performance and stark difference just based on how well they played in the first.

“We just have these implosions. In every game we have lost, despite the score, we come out in the second half and just implode. It is a lot frustrating,” Head Coach Rashaad Powell said.

The boys haven’t been off to this bad of a performance (4-10) through 14 games since 2016 where the Redhawks began 4-9. To find a worse season in Redhawks history the record books date back to 1989 when Renton started off 2-12 through 14 games.

Granted, this might be the toughest season, schedule-wise any Renton team has ever had. So far this season, Renton has played just one 2A team through its 14 games. It was a non-league battle at Lindbergh that saw the Redhawks win 61-55. That will be the one 2A opponent Renton will play all season.

Since coming out of the pandemic, Powell’s teams have struggled to make serious deep runs in the postseason. His thought process was their league schedule was too easy and began scheduling really difficult non-league teams throughout the regular season.

“I’m just looking to see us competing. They beat us by 30-40 our first time, because we were unprepared and undisciplined and didn’t compete. We have progressed, we played hard and mostly disciplined and mostly competed,” Powell said.

Now, as a result of the tiered league system in KingCo, the Redhawks are being challenged night in and night out and don’t have to go out to face the Rainer Beaches and Camases of the world.

In the first half, Renton was on fire. Well, Jordan Agosto was on fire. He scored nineteen points in the first half paired with a handful of assists. Renton was playing their brand of basketball in the first half. Controlling the pace, minimizing turnovers and capitalizing on mistakes.

The lead was as big as 11 in the first half and Renton led 35-26 at halftime and seemed to have played their best ball of the year up to that point. But whatever Renton team went in the locker room, was not the same as the one that came out.

“We just went away from those things… We didn’t execute or finish plays,” Powell said.

For the first five minutes, Renton went without a point. Woodinville silenced Agosto who had no points in the quarter and it was Juice White-Kelly who’s four points in the frame kept Renton alive. Even leading as they took a 41-39 lead into the fourth quarter.

But instead of responding, it was more chaos from Renton. Over the final eight minutes, just five Agosto points were all the Redhawks could muster. Woodinville quickly took the lead and Renton was left fighting up stream without a paddle.

Renton’s record against 4A teams dropped to 1-5 this season, their record against 3A teams is 1-4.

There was a lot of frustration coming from Agosto, who took the brunt of the blame after the loss to Woodinville.

“I wasn’t making a lot of shots that I was taking. As a leader I feel like I should be getting other people points or scoring points myself. I just felt like I wasn’t doing that in the second half and that’s a big contributor to why we lost,” Agosto said.

Agosto could have left, when his four other fellow starters transferred out of Renton. But he stayed, showing the type of character that he is. He stayed and is now the leader of this Redhawk team.

“I feel like I speak heavily for this program. I have been here longest out of a lot of people. I put this ‘L’ on my back,” Agosto said.

Renton will be the number one seed in the KingCo tournament no matter what, because they played in the top tier during the regular season. The hope is that these games will give them experience when playing in the postseason.

“They don’t realize it but it is preparing them for that…We should be better prepared come post season,” Powell said.

The Redhawk girls played prior to the boys against North Creek and fell 60-23. The Renton girls are just 2-11 this season.

The two wins came against Lindbergh and Evergreen.

Renton girls are back in action against Eisenhauer on Jan. 21 and the boys host Mount Si on Jan. 25.

Khloe Mallory dribbles the ball for the Redhawks.