The Greyhounds face MVC rival Boothbay in one of many preliminary contests.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

For the last few years, the Lisbon Greyhounds have entered the basketball postseason strangers in a strange land.

When Lisbon was in Class B, a berth in the tournament usually meant a bus trip somewhere in Cumberland County to play a team they knew little about.

Tonight, the Greyhounds will have to board the bus again to determine their hoop dreams, but at least now that they’re in Class C, they’ll be doing it in familiar territory.

No. 11 Lisbon meets Mountain Valley Conference rival Boothbay, the sixth seed, in one of 11 boys’ preliminaries being played in Western Maine today and tonight.

“We’ve played this team. It’s not like we’re going in playing Cape Elizabeth or Gorham or Greely or someone we know nothing about except that they’re good,” Lisbon coach Doug Sautter said. “It’s also nice to play a team with a student body the same size as ours.”

Of course, familiarity will only get the Greyhounds so far. Lisbon hasn’t played Boothbay since the second game of the season back on December 8, a game the Seahawks dominated, 73-41.

“I looked at the film last night and I’m like, ‘Wow, we’ve gotten a lot better,’ and I’m sure they have as well,” Sautter said.

Tonight’s Western C slate includes two other rematches of teams that have had plenty of time to improve since they last met. No. 9 Winthrop travels to No. 8 Madison, a team the Ramblers beat by five points way back on opening night. No. 5 Telstar hosts No. 12 Livermore Falls. The Rebels won their last meeting, also on opening night, 65-49.

In Class B, No. 8 Cape Elizabeth and No. 9 Poland square off for the right to move on to Augusta and face top-seeded Falmouth.

“(Cape is) a much improved team. They’ve won four of their last five and they’re shooting the ball a lot better than they had earlier in the year,” Poland coach J.P. Yorkey said. “We’ve improved a lot, too, and we’re playing pretty well overall. We just have a couple of things to polish up.”

Yorkey knew where specifically to apply the polish since the Knights finished their season with a 64-46 loss at Cape.

“It was a one-point game at halftime and they stretched it to about eight or so after three and we couldn’t close the gap,” he said.

Rangeley will have had exactly a week to try to close the four-point gap that separated the Lakers from Gould Academy last Wednesday, when the Huskies beat the Lakers on their home floor, 50-46. The eighth-seeded Lakers host the ninth-seeded Huskies again tonight in a Western D prelim, with top-seeded Hyde awaiting the winner.

Seventh-seeded Elan meets No. 10 Richmond in another prelim. A Buccaneer win sets up a rematch of the last two regional finals with second-seeded Valley. No. 6 Buckfield hosts No. 11 North Haven in the only afternoon game today at 1 p.m., with the winner moving on to face No. 3 North Yarmouth Academy.

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