Bend High’s girls basketball team is about to find out how it stacks up against the heavyweights of the Intermountain Conference.

The Lava Bears, one-half game behind Pendleton in the league standings at 5-0, head north and east this weekend for big road games Friday evening at Hermiston and Saturday afternoon against the Buckaroos at Pendleton.

After the road trip, the Bears play host to Redmond on Tuesday night.

Bend (7-6 overall) has taken advantage of a favorable early schedule to race out to a 5-0 mark in league play. The Lava Bears admittedly have built their successful record against squads that, for the most part, have struggled this season.

The teams that Bend has beaten to date are a combined 4-19 in IMC play and 14-44 overall this season.

The Lava Bears’ next three opponents are 13-3 in league play and 28-12 overall.

”We put ourselves in a position where we wanted to be,” said Bend High coach J.J. Anderson. ”We’ve taken care of business so far, and that’s what it all comes down.”

Anderson continued, ”We kind of set high goals at the beginning of the season, knowing that people outside of our group wouldn’t expect us to have high expectations because we lost so many people from last year. This is a big weekend for us; if you are going to win a championship, you have to do it going through Pendleton and Hermiston.”

The Lava Bears have been idle since putting up a season-high 73 points in their 21-point victory over archrival Mountain View last Thursday. Senior Meghan Sampson leads Bend in scoring this season, averaging 11.2 points per outing.

”We felt like we got battle tested early on against top-10 teams like North Medford and Willamette,” said Anderson. ”We’ve come a long way since the start of the season, especially on the defensive end.”

On Friday, Bend will be looking for its first win at Hermiston since 2000, when the Lava Bears edged the Lady Bulldogs 43-41 on a last-second shot.

Hermiston has struggled coming out of the holiday break. The squad lost to rival Pendleton 58-44 Tuesday night, and was beaten at home by 30 points, 72-42, Saturday by Redmond. Amanda Sivey tops the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with an 11.9 average.

On Saturday, the Bears face a Pendleton squad that is averaging 66.0 points in its first five league games while allowing opponents just 39.6 points.

The Buckaroos (6-0 IMC) have two of the top players in the conference in juniors Mackenzie Larson and Marissa Hammond. Larson leads the league in scoring at 19.2 points per game, and Hammond is ranked third in scoring at 13.4.

”We’ve got a great deal of confidence knowing that we’re playing well, but we also recognize these are tough teams and tough places to play,” said Anderson. ”It’s a big weekend.”