By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The most prominent alumnus of the Class 2A tournament is, of course, Luke Ridnour, the three-time Blaine all-stater who went all to an All-America career at Oregon and is now the Seattle Sonics’ starting point guard.

But although Ridnour led the Borderites to back-to-back state championships in the SunDome, years from now when he looks back upon those two weeks in Yakima, an off-the-court moment might be more apt to stir more poignant memories than anything that happened on the hardwood.

That’s where he met his wife-to-be.

Katie Reome was a sophomore at Lakeside in March 2000, when Ridnour was a Blaine senior. During that week’s tournament, Mel Moore of Yakima, then the tournament co-manager, had arranged for the Downtown Rotary Club to host two representative players and their coaches. The players? Reome and Ridnour.

Reome and her coach, Lisa Schultz, and Ridnour and his coach/father Rob arrived in separate cars. Moore introduced them to one another at the club.

A poignant, stars-in-the-eyes introduction, right? Love at first sight? Hardly.

“It’s a riot, really,” recalls Moore. “I remember saying, ‘Katie, this is Luke,’ and she goes like this.” (Moore makes a single parade-wave motion.) “And then, ‘Luke, this is Katie,’ and he looked at her and nodded and said, ‘Hey.’

"And that was their formal introduction. I did see them on (that) Saturday behind the bleachers at the end of the Dome, when we had those portable bleachers, saw them visiting for a few minutes. But I think about a year later they were e-mailing each other and became an item.”

They were married last August.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: If it ever gets too loud on the basketball court during a Forks game for players to hear one another, that’s not a problem for the Spartans. Two of them — one starter each on the boys and girls teams — play a whole lot better than they hear, anyway.

Freshman Alexa Daniels, the second-leading scorer (10.9) on the girls team, and 6-5 senior Dustin Daniels (11.3) are each legally deaf, and the school district provides an interpreter for each. But the on-court communication is easy, because many of their teammates have learned sign language — some a little, some a lot.

“Several of the students know sign just from growing up with Alexa, and all of our offenses and defenses have hand-signals, have a sign,” girls coach Cameron Botkin says. “So all the girls have to know all of our offensive and defensive signs as well as what they’re called.

“It’s helpful when a gym gets really noisy as well, because we don’t have to try to listen to each other.”

SHUTTING DOWN: Naches Valley’s girls might want to schedule a morning shoot-around Thursday — preferably in the middle of the intersection of 40th and Summitview avenues during morning rush hour. Dealing with that kind of pressure might prepare them for dealing with Pullman’s pressure.

The Greyhounds and their active 2-3 zone so flummoxed Vashon Island’s shooters on Wednesday that the Pirates got off only 10 first-half shots, missed eight of those and didn’t so much as catch iron on seven of them. It didn’t get much better after intermission for the Pirates, who finished with 29 turnovers — matching their 29 shot attempts.

The Pirates barely avoided tying the tournament record for lowest losing score (19) when Deborah Hill scored with 1:57 remaining in their 39-21 loss.

SHE’LL FOLLOW THE SUN: King’s senior guard Caitlyn Faidley is planning to attend Azusa Pacific in Southern California. She likes its academics and Christian ethic, and she may play basketball there, too. But there’s something else inviting about that college on the northeast edge of Los Angeles.

“I love to be tan,” grins Faidley, her school’s student body president. “I hate that in basketball season I’m inside all the time and I’m pasty-white.”

SHORT JUMPERS: Connell’s boys gave up a 26-4 run in the first half of their 69-49 loss to Hockinson, and not once during that 8 1/2-minute drought did Eagles coach Jim Colclasure call for a time-out to stop the bleeding. Hockinson’s boys sank 32 free throws, breaking the tournament record by five. ... The low score in Nooksack Valley’s 41-36 victory over Forks was no surprise; the two ranked second (42.6) and third (44.0), respectively, among 2A boys in points allowed.