Pirates, Indians gear up for 24th annual Mayor’s Cup

Posted

The rivalry will be renewed this weekend when the Perryville and St. Vincent boys and girls basketball teams will compete in the 24th annual Mayor’s Cup Saturday at the Perry Park Center.
The competition begins at 2 p.m. with the junior varsity girls, who will only play one half. The JV boys start at 3 p.m., with the varsity girls at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity boys finishing the event at 6 p.m.
Last season, the St. Vincent varsity boys scored in a ferocious flurry in the second and third quarters as they took control of the final game of the evening. St. Vincent blew past Perryville 72-37 Saturday in what was the largest margin of victory for the Indians in the 23-year series (35 points).
It was the third straight win for the Indians in the series and they have also four of the last five.
It was also the most points the Indians scored in any contest over the two decades of games. The Perryville and St. Vincent girls combined for 20 turnovers in the first two quarters and
Perryville turned it around first in the second half and took the game.
The Lady Pirates defense took control, and the offense did just enough to come away with the 41-27 victory over rival St. Vincent.
The Perryville girls have won four straight games in the series.
The event began in 2000 when former Perryville Mayor Bob Miget was instrumental in the building of the Perry Park Center in 1999.

“People said ‘Hey you should play games in there,’ St. Vincent Athletic Director and boys basketball coach Bruce Valleroy said on the 20th anniversary of the event. “So when we put Perryville on the schedule we decided, it’s probably the only place big enough to hold the games so that we can fit everyone in one place.”
From then on the event was born.
Valleroy, who has been involved in every one of the Mayor’s Cup events, noted that the event used to have a trophy or cup that went to the winning school, but over time the Cup went to the wayside and the event shifted its focus to mainly basketball.
“The trophy was so big that it would not fit inside either of the school’s trophy cases, so we had to sit it in the hallway.” Valleroy said. “It just collected dust and the competitiveness got out of hand in the early years so we just did away with the cup. I just call it the Battle of Perryville, because there is no cup anymore and that’s really what it is.”
The first version of the event was not played at the Perry Park Center because of snow in late January. The event was played at Perryville High School on Feb. 12, 2000 and began with a pair of Pirate victories. The event has been held at the Park Center ever since at the end of January each year.
From 2003-2009, the Perryville boys won six straight contests and won four straight games from 2014-2017.
The Perryville girls won the first seven contests of the series from 2000-2006, all by double digits.
But ever since St. Vincent has played nearly even with Perryville, with the Lady Pirates holding a 7-6 edge from 2007-2019, until the Pirates have run off four straight wins in the series.
Overall, the Perryville boys hold a 15-8 edge, and the Perryville girls lead the series 17-6.