By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

The Lisbon Greyhounds won 10 of their last 11 games during the regular season to secure a home game in the Western Class B preliminaries. But home court advantage turned out to be a mixed blessing when the final Heal Point standings were released Sunday.

Since Lisbon’s home gym is slightly smaller than regulation, it will have to take a bus to its “home” game Tuesday night. In fact, the seventh-seeded Greyhounds on Tuesday night will have to travel about the same distance to their new home away from home, Central Maine Community College in Auburn, as their opponent, No. 10 Poland.

“We had a preliminary game here (at Lisbon High School) a couple of years ago but (the Maine Principals’ Association) changed the rule two years ago, I think,” said Lisbon coach Doug Sautter. “There’s nothing in the rule book about it, but we got a letter from (MPA executive director) Dick Durost the year before last saying we couldn’t host a game in our gym. We didn’t get a letter from him this year, but Jeff (Ramich, Lisbon’s co-curricular director) sent him an e-mail to see if the rule still stood, and it does.”

Sautter said playing the game in Auburn will probably mean a lot less students in the cheering section, but pointed out that his team fared better on the road (7-2) than at home this year (6-3).

The Greyhounds practiced at CMCC last Friday and will do so again today, so they won’t be totally unfamiliar with their home court.

“The guys kind of like the length of the court,” Sautter said. “We have some athletic kids that can run the court, so maybe it’s a blessing.”

Lisbon isn’t the only team in Class B playing in strange surroundings during the post-season. The Western B tournament is moving from the Augusta Civic Center to the Cumberland County Civic Center this year. Eastern Class A will replace Western B on the tournament schedule in Augusta after decades of action at the Bangor Auditorium.

Ironically, the top seed in Portland will be the team that has to travel the furthest. Mountain Valley earned the No. 1 spot in Western B with its second consecutive undefeated regular season in the Mountain Valley Conference.

“It’s nice to be No. 1, but you still have to beat everybody in the end,” said coach Dave Gerrish, who steered the Falcons to an 18-0 record and the MVC regular season championship in his first year at the helm. “It’s a good accomplishment for the kids. They’ve worked so hard this year. I think it also says something for the MVC this year.”

Gerrish will be keeping his team busy during the layoff between last Thurxday’s regular season finale and next Friday night’s quarterfinal, in which they’ll meet the winner of the Lincoln Academy-Wells prelim. The Falcons are scheduled to meet Boothbay in the MVC championship game tonight, then will scrimmage Cheverus, the No. 2 seed in Western A, on Wednesday.

“The kids are looking forward to (the tournament). It’s a new challenge,” Gerrish said.

Mathematicians were challenged to break the tie for the No. 6 seed in Eastern A. Finally, after figuring the Heals to the 10th decimal place, Mt. Blue earned the spot over Bangor. The Cougars’ reward is hosting No. 11 Lewiston Wednesday night.

The two KVAC schools didn’t meet during the regular season because the conference was broken up into two divisions, but they did meet in the preseason and are almost mirror images.

“We both play a very similar style,” said Mt. Blue coach Jim Bessey. “They’ll press quite a bit and get up and down the floor and we’ll try to do the same thing.”

Brunswick earned the top seed in Eastern A. Defending state champion Hampden Academy and No. 3 Gardiner also earned byes to Augusta. No. 4 Edward Little just missed out on a bye and will host No. 13 Cony, a team the Eddies beat twice during the regular season. The winner of that game will meet the winner of the prelim between No. 12 Oxford Hills and No. 5 Messalonskee.

In Western C, Boothbay took the top spot, while No. 2 Dirigo and No. 3 Winthrop also earned byes to Augusta. No. 4 North Yarmouth Academy, which has moved up from Class D, will host No. 13 Mt. Abram. Another WMC-MVC match-up pits No. 11 Livermore Falls against No. 6 Traip.

Fifth-seeded Telstar hosts No. 12 Wiscasset. The Rebels won the only regular season meeting between the two teams back on Dec. 17, but they needed double overtime and 49 points from Sean Caddigan to do it. WMC rivals St. Dom’s and Waynflete square off in the 7-10 pairing. The Saints beat the Flyers twice in three regular season meetings, including once on Waynflete’s home floor.

Eight-time defending Western D champion Valley of Bingham returned to its familiar spot atop the seedings. Richmond, Hyde and Pine Tree Academy earned byes to the quarterfinals, as did No. 6 Buckfield and No. 3 Rangeley, which will converge at ACC for a quarterfinal next Saturday morning.

Maranacook is the top seed in Eastern B but it’s debatable whether that comes with an advantage. The Black Bears finished 17-1 and await the winner of the prelim between defending state champion Camden Hills and 15-3 Mattanawcook.

The other top seeds in the state are Deering (A West), Calais (C East), and Deer Isle (D West).