Christian Behrens still believes.

But it remains clear on the face of Tahoma High’s 6-foot-8, 195-pound string bean of a basketball star: The season was frustrating for him and the Bears.

Sure, Behrens filled up the hoop at an impressive rate, further cementing himself as one of the top handful of players in the South Puget Sound League North Division. But at the same time, the Bears fell short in the win column, going 1-19 overall.

And it took a while to get that one win, Jan. 31 to be exact, when the Bears knocked off Kent-Meridian 53-43.

“I am definitely surprised,” said Behrens, a sophomore forward who earned honorable mention accolades as a freshman. “I thought we could pull off a couple.”

Tahoma’s super sophomore did virtually all he could to will the Bears to victory.

Want points?

Behrens averages 20.5 per game, third in the North to only Kentwood’s Joshua Smith and Kentridge’s Gary Bell.

Rebounds? Behrens pulled down 11.2 per game, second only to Smith.

Blocked shots?

Behrens has got that taken care of as well, blocking a league-high 8 in one game this season.

And though the Bears didn’t win much, others noticed Behrens’ unrelenting work.

“(He’s) very talented. Very versatile. Very alone,” said Kentridge coach Dave Jamison. “He gets bigger and better every time I see him.

“I want him to move away.”

Behrens’ performance also has caught the eye of college coaches — not to mention opposing defenses.

“Every team we play has two or three guys on him,” said Tahoma coach Rob Morrow. “We’ve had various coaches from colleges come in and watch him. All the local (college) coaches have been here this year and last year, as well.

“He’s noticed. I don’t think he’s a secret.”

Behrens also is young, which helps explain the Bears’ current predicament. While there’s talent, especially in their 6-foot-8 star, there’s also youth. Tahoma started three sophomores and two juniors this season. Coming off the bench were two sophomores and a freshman.

If Tahoma resided in, say, the SPSL 3A, a few more wins likely would have come the Bears’ way. But in the 4A North, where Tahoma played a highly-ranked team virtually every week of the season, things weren’t quite so simple.

Three teams from the North — Federal Way, Kentwood and Kentridge — spent virtually the entire season ranked in the state’s top 10. And Auburn rose as high as fifth in some polls.

“It has been challenging in terms of going home from games,” Morrow said. “Another beatdown from a top-10 team.”

Despite the “beatdowns,” Behrens has evolved into one of the league’s most impressive forces. He doesn’t have the raw size or power of Kentwood’s Smith or the silky-smooth deep touch of Kentlake’s Jeff Budinich, two of the league’s elite big kids.

Instead, Behrens has a bit of both, and enough point guard in him to bring the ball up the floor when the Bears need him to do that.

“Christian can run the floor, he can shoot, he can dribble,” Tahoma sophomore guard Spencer Hobson said. “I don’t think there’s anything he can’t do.”

To put Behrens’ season in perspective, his 410 points are nearly half — 44 percent, to be precise — of what the Bears recorded all season.

On Jan. 13, that number became even more lopsided, when Behrens registered 22 of Tahoma’s 29 points in a loss to Kentwood.

But Tahoma’s mild-mannered sophomore would never throw his teammates under the bus in frustration. It’s always about the team and “we” opposed to “I.”

“We couldn’t really hit our shots on offense,” he said of that particular loss to Kentwood. “Our percentage wasn’t as good as it needs to be.”

Though Tahoma was clearly out of the playoff hunt well before the end of the season, Behrens never stopped believing. Because while the Bears are young now, a time will come when the situation is reversed.

Behrens, for one, is counting on it.

“We want to do good things, and I believe this team can do something special in the future,” he said.