Louie Soriano, Washington guard, senior from Bremerton (Gerald Begudin)

Louie Soriano, a University of Washington basketball guard from Bremerton who was an all-league pick as a junior in 1950 and a stalwart on the NCAA-tournament team of 1951, has died at age 88.

The Huskies won the Pacific Coast Conference title in 1951, which was coach Tippy Dye’s first season. They posted a 24-6 record and beat Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Oklahoma State.

In the book “The Glory of Washington,” authors Jim Daves and W. Thomas Porter wrote that the season “was a great one because of the scoring of junior Frank Guisness and sophomore center Bob Houbregs and the hustle and floor leadership of senior Louie Soriano.”

While at the UW, Soriano was once talked into a boxing match with football player Don Coryell, the future coach of the Chargers. Coryell had boxing experience and dispatched Soriano in two rounds.

Soriano, 5 feet 10, was an all-state guard at Bremerton High School. After leaving the UW, he returned to Bremerton and operated insurance and property-management businesses for decades and was influential in civic affairs.

He became a well-regarded college basketball official and was later an evaluator of NBA officials.

Soriano and wife Joan lived in Henderson, Nev., the past five years and he died at home Feb. 22, according to the Kitsap Sun.

Craig Smith: Craig Smith, perhaps best known by his column name of "Sideline Smitty," was a Seattle Times sportswriter for 32 years before retiring.