FERRIDAY &8212; Close friends since the fifth grade, Antonio Jordan and Brandt Bradley met two days before the start of the school year with a huge dilemma.

The two had a common bond of basketball while playing for Harrisonburg, but basketball as they knew it was hanging in the balance with the school year. Their world was in sheer turmoil.

Harrisonburg had yet to hire a coach.

The pair&8217;s coach from last season, Eric Richard, had left to take over the program at Block. Transferring to Block was out of the question since the two didn&8217;t live in Jonesville.

So Jordan took the advice of his cousin, Ricky Dunbar, who had transferred from Sicily Island to Huntington over the summer.

Come on over, Dunbar said, and you can still play basketball.

Oh, and, maybe we can all ride to school together.

The three have helped transform Huntington&8217;s boys basketball team into a competitive club this season. The Hounds had talent from last year&8217;s club that just missed out on the district tournament, but now they&8217;re the talk of the Miss-Lou after an 8-1 start to the season.

&8220;I didn&8217;t know anybody,&8221; Bradley said of his new school. &8220;I was kind of nervous at first with a new school and everything, it turned out pretty good. It&8217;s a lot like Harrisonburg. We were real real close with (Richard). When you&8217;ve got a good coach, that kind of brings everything together.&8221;

The two had it narrowed down to either Franklin Academy of Huntington, and they chose the latter. Part of it was the program being installed by first-year head coach David Boydstun, and part of it may have been Dunbar&8217;s insistence.

Now the two can continue playing basketball, Jordan can play alongside his cousin and the Hounds can welcome in new players to revive a program that went 2-20 two seasons ago and has its fourth head coach in four years.

&8220;Ricky is my cousin, and we&8217;ve known each other most of our lives,&8221; Jordan said. &8220;They said (Huntington) was a good school, and we ended up coming here. He told me he was thinking about coming here to play football, and I was looking for a place to play basketball.&8221;

The biggest plus for the whole situation is not just the infusion of talent but the chemistry that&8217;s developed so quickly. The Hounds&8217; 63-62 win over Trinity Friday night &8212; their first in 28 tries &8212; indicated there may be no selfishness on the team at all.

&8220;Everybody has been talking, and they knew we had some new kids,&8221; said Boydstun, who came out of retirement to take the job after last coaching in Shreveport. &8220;They heard we had some success early, and they got to talking. With the win Friday, that got everybody excited. They&8217;re just coming to see what&8217;s going on here.&8221;

Dunbar&8217;s presence inside may be the biggest difference from last year to this year for the Hounds.

Dunbar started at fullback for the football team &8212; his primary reason for transferring since Sicily Island dropped the program a couple of years ago &8212; and is a physical presence inside. He had 14 against Trinity Friday night and spent most of the night battling Trinity post Stevan Ridley.

Jordan has shown his versatility by being able to handle the ball as a guard with the jumping ability to play the inside. He&8217;s thrown down three dunks this year.

Bradley is a slasher-type guard, and the three complement the team with Ples Arthur&8217;s perimeter shooting and Stan Hazlip and Zack Brown at guard.

&8220;The guys that were here, they&8217;ve been real unselfish,&8221; Boydstun said. &8220;They lost some starting jobs, but they&8217;re excited about winning and being a part of a program that&8217;s successful. I&8217;m new here, too. Ricky works hard on the boards and gets a lot of rebounds for us, and Tony can do just about anything.&8221;

That was the key Friday night against Trinity, when Arthur was the high scorer with 15 points thanks to three 3-pointers in the first quarter. Others have scored in double figures, but everyone has played their part so far this season with the team&8217;s only loss coming at University Christian Prep.

&8220;People are talking about us,&8221; Arthur said. &8220;You couldn&8217;t ask for anything better (to beat Trinity). We&8217;re just playing together, and there&8217;s a different high scorer every game. We&8217;ve got to get better every day. We&8217;ve got to work hard ever day.&8221;

Dunbar knows what it&8217;s like to go deep into the playoffs and come up short. Last season Sicily Island lost in the quarterfinals, and he wants to help his new team get a little bit further.

&8220;Our goal is to win district and get a state championship,&8221; Dunbar said. &8220;We have the team, and we stick together like family. That&8217;s the No. 1 thing I like about this team. No matter what the outcome, we stick together like family.&8221;