Pa’treon “Juicy” Lee is the energy drink that has fueled Auburn throughout the season.

And, at least until Tuesday night’s 77-74 loss to Enumclaw in a North Puget Sound League 4A Olympic Division contest, the usual result had been a Trojans’ victory.

Lee, who scored a game-high 37 points, put Auburn (9-6 overall, 5-4 Olympic) into position to secure sole possession of second place in divisional play. His layup with 29 seconds left reduced the Trojans’ deficit to 75-74. But Enumclaw freshman Peter Erickson was fouled with 12 seconds remaining and converted both free throws. That left Auburn with a final opportunity to send the game into overtime before senior Zane Harshman’s 3-pointer fell short.

The result moved the Hornets (10-5, 6-3) into sole possession of second place in the Olympic.

“It kind of stings a little bit not to come out on top,” Auburn coach Ryan Hansen said.

Especially when the Trojans’ top player arguably had his best performance of the season.

“He did a great job of being aggressive and getting to the basket,” Hansen said of Lee. “He has a great ability to do that. It’s impressive because teams scout him – and realize that’s his strength – and try and take that away, yet he’s still able to do that.”

While Lee has a penchant for eluding defenders – he converted 16 of 19 field goals against Enumclaw – he said his nickname is unrelated to his work on the hardwood.

“My mom gave me that nickname when I was a kid,” he said. “I was a chubby baby and I had a lot of slobber. She got ‘Juicy’ from that.”

Despite that, he embraced the moniker. After every field goal, the Trojans’ public-address announcer refers to him by his nickname. He said his peers have embraced it as well.

“I couldn’t do it without my team or our crowd,” Lee said. “I think our crowd got me moving more.”

But Hansen felt his team got moving a bit too late. The Hornets shot 53 percent from the field during the first half en route to a 41-33 lead at intermission.

“We had a lot of defensive breakdowns,” he said. “We’ve got to be better defensively; we’ve got to do a better job of limiting teams to one shot. That’s difficult for us to do because we’re not very big, but we’ve got to find ways to get the rebounds.”

Lee shared similar sentiments.

“Because of our lack of size, we’ve got to box out and be tough,” he said. “We’ve got to outwork every team.”

Auburn tried to compensate for its size deficit by using a full-court press in the second half, to some success. But the Trojans struggled to draw fouls – they converted 6 of 9 free throws for the game – on the offensive end. Meanwhile, Enumclaw made 16 of 20 attempts from the free-throw line.

“We tried to tighten up our defense during the second half, but they got to the free-throw line a bunch,” Hansen said.

Auburn has five regular-season games remaining to correct that, beginning at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Federal Way (13-0, 9-0).

“We’re kind of down to the last two weeks,” Hansen said. “We’ve got to fight for (playoff) position. That’s where we’ve got to put our mindset.”

Elsewhere

At Auburn Riverside 67, Thomas Jefferson 34: EJ Taylor scored a game-high 15 points as the Ravens ended a two-game losing streak.

Julian Gulchuk added 11 points for Auburn Riverside (8-6, 4-5. Josiah Presley paced the Raiders (3-12, 0-9) with 14 points.

At Todd Beamer 66, Auburn Mountainview 58: Freshman Quinn Lacey scored 14 points, but it was not enough as the Lions suffered a setback in divisional play.

Zane Richardson (12) and Talan Alfrey (10) also scored in double figures for Auburn Mountainview (6-9, 3-6). The Titans (8-7, 5-4) were led by Ste’fun Singleton’s 21 points.