Entering this boys basketball season, Bend High had only one direction to go — up.

The 2023-24 Lava Bears’ season came and went without a single victory in the win column. And dating back to the 2022-23 campaign, the losing streak had reached 28 games. Bend was the only winless team in Class 5A last season.

“It is tough,” said Bend senior guard Cash Hattenhauer. “It is a grind to keep wanting to come to practice when you aren’t getting any results. But deep down you know you love the game and you play basketball for fun. That was my junior year, so I knew I had another year. I just had to make sure not to get too down because I knew I had a senior season where we could do great things as a team.”

“I learned it could only go up from there,” said junior guard Max Duncan. “We were at the bottom, we can keep going up and up.”

In a dramatic turnaround, the Lava Bears are 7-4 this season. Thursday evening they blew by Class 4A La Grande 80-50 with a dominant second half and a career-high 28 points from Hattenhauer.

Duncan jumpstarted the game with 10 of his 12 points in the opening quarter. Senior center Will Albert also scored in double-figures with 10 points to help lead Bend to the victory.

Going into halftime, the Lava Bears held a 36-26 lead, but they were not satisfied with how they played in the second quarter against the Tigers (2-9). Then Hattenhauer took over in the third quarter, scoring 14 of his 28 points to give Bend a 59-38 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“In the second half I felt like we really came out strong, that third quarter we pulled away,” Hattenhauer said. “We know we had to win that game comfortably to get to where we want to be.”

A year ago, the Lava Bears would have taken any win they could have gotten. But now, they expect to beat a team like La Grande by 30 points.

“It is such a contrast from last year,” said second-year Bend coach Ted Aubin. “Last year everyone understood that we were young and inexperienced, essentially a JV team playing a varsity schedule and we were playing in the best conference in 5A.

“This year we are so much stronger, so much more mature and guys are better skilled,” Aubin added. “I’m excited they played as well as they did, but there is still some consistency that we need to get better with.”

Signs for an improved season began to take shape during the summer when suddenly a team that was on the wrong side of lopsided outcomes was starting to play in competitive games, which was not the case the previous summer.

Despite the mounting losses last season, the Lava Bears kept a positive disposition, and in turn, became a resilient team.

“This summer was really good for us because we played close games,” Aubin said. “We were competitive, we were in close games, it didn’t feel like we were getting blown out like we had during the season. I think some kids started to get in the weight room, kids started playing extra basketball and kids worked on their skill development. But we have 11 guys in the locker room that really like playing with one another.”

In the first game of the season, the Lava Bears put an end to the losing streak with a 73-44 win over Scappoose. It was Bend’s first victory since Feb. 17, 2023.

“We could feel it in the offseason workouts,” Hattenhauer said. “In the first game, we came out and got a 29-point win. Right from there we knew it was going to be a different season for sure.”

Granted, six of the Lava Bears’ wins this season have been against 4A teams, with one win coming against 6A Willamette.

The Intermountain Conference, in which Bend will play Mountain View in its league opener on Jan. 22, will certainly be a challenge. But it is one the Lava Bears feel prepared to take on this season.

“I think we just need to keep improving each week,” Duncan said. “I know we have a lot of really good teams in our league. But I think we can beat some of them. We just have to keep improving and getting better every week.”