Who said life on the road is hard? Bus rides are seldom really long hauls, and the players get to eat at McDonald&8217;s or Burger King after a game.

Right now, Franklin County&8217;s basketball teams don&8217;t have a choice. Water damage following Hurricane Rita left the Bulldogs&8217; gym floor damaged, forcing both teams to spend November and December on the road.

Two months may turn into the entire season. Franklin County visited Natchez High Tuesday in a game scheduled for Meadville &8212; a varsity sweep &8212; and will spend this week on the road.

Friday&8217;s game at home against Tylertown will be played on the road.

&8220;It depends on how bad our school wants us to play at home,&8221; FC boys&8217; head coach Chris Jordan said. &8220;That&8217;s the bottom line. We&8217;re waiting to hear from the insurance people. If we have to travel every night, we&8217;ll have to adjust.&8221;That means going to Wilkinson County, Columbia, Tylertown and other places twice this season for both teams when it&8217;s hard enough to win once at some of those places. Both teams retreat to the elementary school gym, an old WPA-era building that&8217;s cramped and doesn&8217;t have a regulation floor, for practices.

At the start of the season coaches hoped to play just the first two months of the season on the road and switched some of the home games in Region 7-3A play to the road in favor of playing at home in January or February.

Not any more. And so far through three games, the Bulldogs are 1-2.

&8220;Our district goes from Woodville to Columbia,&8221; Jordan said. &8220;(Wilkinson County) has the biggest ride. But going back to Columbia, where you play them 11 points in their gym, that&8217;s a close game. The thing with South Pike, it&8217;ll be hard to go back and play them close in their gym.

&8220;And our girls&8217; team is good and will have to travel. They&8217;ve had to play some of the tougher teams on the road and win.&8221;

The Lady Bulldogs have had to make the best of their life on the road, but coach Charles Moore and his club have made the best of it. They remain undefeated after handing previously unbeaten St. Aloysius its first loss Saturday in the finals of the Lawrence County tournament.

No home games means many of the home folks won&8217;t be able to see that girls&8217; team and its&8217; hot streak right now. It also means many won&8217;t see the boys&8217; team with giants Marcus and Bo Tillman down low along with Wesley Brown.

The senior who came off the bench last season for a state finalist club has blossomed into a standout player for Franklin County. He had 24 points against Natchez High Tuesday night, including a couple of dunks that about tore the roof off the NHS gym.

&8220;He didn&8217;t play too much last year,&8221; Jordan said. &8220;He sat out his sophomore year and didn&8217;t play at all. His work ethic has got to improve. As his focus gets a little better, our team will get a little better. His work ethic, if it&8217;s like it ought to be, you&8217;d hear more about him.&8221;

NOT SO MUCH MALLORY &8212; When Trinity&8217;s Lady Saints had to face Brookhaven&8217;s zone defense and try to create scoring opportunities for Mallory Archer, hope wasn&8217;t lost.

Instead, they got buckets underneath off putbacks and passes down low to Laura Jo Hurt and Courtney Timm. The two combined for 16 points &8212; Archer finished with 15 &8212; while Timm had 10 points and grabbed a number of rebounds to keep Brookhaven from getting second chances.

&8220;I thought our inside girls played big tonight,&8221; Trinity head coach Melanie Hall said. &8220;We got the inside going as well as the outside. They crashed the boards and got offensive and defensive rebounds. Courtney Timm and Laura Jo &8212; that may have been the best ball game those two have had this year.&8221;

Timm did most of her damage in the fourth quarter when her six points helped the Lady Saints put the game away. Archer finished the game with 15 points &8212; thanks to three 3-pointers in the third quarter &8212; but everyone else picked up their game a little bit late to close it out.

&8220;Courtney and Laura Jo both stepped it up,&8221; Archer said. &8220;Courtney was crashing the boards so hard. Every time I looked up, Courtney was getting a rebound and putting it back up. Laura Jo stepped up as well.&8221;

TO BE ANNOUNCED &8212; Franklin County guard Victoria Hunt will plead the fifth for right now. She doesn&8217;t know where she&8217;ll go and play college basketball until after the season is over.

But the sharp-shooting senior with good ball handling skills has offers on the table. Head coach Charles Moore said both Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State have made an offer and Southern Miss has showed interest.

&8220;Louisiana Tech likes her a whole bunch,&8221; Moore said. &8220;She&8217;s decided she&8217;s going to wait until the spring to make a decision. She&8217;s going to worry about our season right now.&8221;

And the senior is in no hurry.

&8220;I&8217;m going to decide,&8221; Hunt said after putting up 21 Tuesday against Natchez High. &8220;It&8217;s a good bit of (contact). They&8217;ve been calling me.&8221;

LINEUP CHANGE &8212; Huntington&8217;s girls aren&8217;t the winless team they have may have been tagged with earlier thanks to a stretch of winning four out of six games. Head coach Penny Moak knew her team was better than its 0-11 mark to start the season.

It was just finding something that clicked.

Now the Lady Hounds have moved sophomore Donna Tarver out of the starting lineup at forward in favor of junior Grubby Harrell. Tarver came off the bench Tuesday against Franklin Academy and finished with six points and 15 rebounds.

&8220;Grubby does a good job on defense, and Donna seems to do better coming off the bench,&8221; Moak said. &8220;Some kids just seem to do that. They all have little different things they do. Different combinations do different things together. We&8217;re in a new season (in district) and forgetting everything else.&8221;