The winter sports season officially came to a close last weekend with the completion of the boys and girls state Class 2A and 3A basketball tournaments. Here’s a look back at 10 memorable events in North Central Washington during the season:Tale of two seasons

The regular season was a historic one for the Wenatchee girls basketball team.

The Panthers shared the CBBN Columbia title with Southridge, their first conference championship since 1976. Dani Hallberg set a school scoring record, the first of many marks she established as her illustrious career wound down.

Wenatchee finished the regular season 16-4, but after winning its first district game against Eisenhower the Panthers lost three straight games at home and didn’t even make regionals.

Then coach Ron Stone and Co. had to watch as Moses Lake, a team Wenatchee swept in the regular season, took eighth place in the state tournament.

Chelan vs. Ephrata

The basketball season started with a clash of two heavyweights from different classes, as Chelan hosted Ephrata in a non-league tilt featuring two of North Central Washington’s best in Chelan’s Joe Harris and Ephrata’s Patrick Simon.

Harris led all scorers with 27 points, but Simon scored 24 to lead his Tigers to an overtime victory.

Both teams went on to place in their respective state tournaments.

Record haul

As he was rewriting the Chelan record books in his senior season, Joe Harris also piled up several prestigious awards, including the state’s Mr. Basketball award, and the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year honor, both given to the best player in the state regardless of classification.

Harris also took over the state’s Class 1A scoring record, sort of. If you don’t include games against non-Canadian international teams, Harris is the new record-holder at 2,398 points. If you count those points, 1990s Cascade standout Ryan Hansen’s total goes from 2,382 to 2,411, and Harris comes up just short.

The only thing the Virginia-bound Harris didn’t win this year is the thing he probably wanted most: A state title.

Wrestling rivals

Cashmere’s Roman Velazquez and Tonasket’s Andrew Grillo wrestled each other five times this winter, carrying their CTL rivalry all the way to the state championship. In that match, Velazquez prevailed 5-3 to win the Class 1A 160-pound title.

Tonasket’s Keegan McCormick also won a state title, while Quincy’s Manny Ybarra came up short in his bid for a second straight title, losing in the state 2A championship match at 130 pounds.

Simon’s masterpiece

On most days, 48 points by one player should be enough to win a high school basketball game.

Ephrata’s Patrick Simon set a Class 2A boys state record by dropping 48 on top-ranked Squalicum, but the Storm beat Simon and the Tigers 77-62.

Simon went 15-for-15 from the free throw line, tying another record. He had seven 3-pointers and was 13-for-27 from the field.

Ephrata coach Brandon Evenson summed it up best, “Forty-eight points. What can you say?”

Hunt wins 40

Wenatchee senior 152-pound wrestler Nick Hunt finished 2010 with a season win-loss record of 40-5, the biggest win total on a team that advanced five performers to Mat Classic.

Hunt finished sixth at the state tourney after entering the meet ranked second in the state.

‘Fresh’ faces

With three freshmen in the starting lineup, the Okanogan girls basketball team was thought by many to be a year away from the beginning of an amazing run in the CTL.

But with Kara Staggs leading the way — she led the league in scoring at 14.4 points per game — the Bulldogs arrived a year earlier than expected.

Okanogan staked its claim to being the best team in the league with a home win over defending champ Chelan in January, then proved that victory was no fluke with two more wins over the Goats, one at Chelan in February, and the other two weeks later in the playoffs.

The Eagles arrive

It was a long time coming for the Soap Lake boys basketball team, which finally reached state for the first time in program history, and became the first Eagles boys team to reach any state competition since the 1984 football team. Though they went two-and-out at the Class 2B tournament, Soap Lake’s boys were plenty happy just to be there.

“It’s life-changing,” junior David Coreas told the Spokesman-Review.

The comeback

The Entiat boys entered the Class 2B state tournament with lofty expectations, but the Tigers had a hard time living up to them in their first-round matchup against Asotin.

Well, until the fourth quarter, that is.

Entiat trailed by 16 points at the beginning of the quarter, but thanks to a 10-0 run and 14 points on 4-for-4 3-point shooting from the sharpshooting Angel Paz, the Tigers clawed their way back into the game and eventually tied it up with less than 15 seconds to go on a Paz trey.

Entiat prevailed 66-62 in overtime, but they were sent home empty-handed after losses to LaConner and Chief Leschi.

Lions and Tigers

The Liberty Bell and Entiat girls basketball teams fought tooth-and-nail with each other all season, and when the dust cleared, there still wasn’t a clear-cut winner.

The NCW 2B League champion Mountain Lions handed Entiat a pair of regular-season losses— one of which was a 25-point drubbing — but the Tigers bounced back by beating Liberty Bell 53-47 in the district title game. In a game that saw nine league changes and seven ties, the Tigers eventually pulled away thanks to eight fourth-quarter points from senior post and team leader Taylor Montgomery.

Liberty Bell may have gotten the last laugh, however; the Lions took home the seventh place trophy from state, while Entiat came up with eighth.