The rivalry will be renewed this weekend.
The Perryville and St. Vincent boys and girls basketball teams will compete in the 25th annual Mayor’s Cup Saturday at the Perry Park Center.
The competition begins at noon with the junior varsity girls, The JV boys start at 1:30 p.m., with the varsity girls at 3 p.m. and the varsity boys finishing the event at 4:30 p.m.
Last season, the St. Vincent varsity boys scored in a ferocious flurry in the third quarter as they took control of the final game of the evening, outscoring Perryville 20-2 in the period. St. Vincent blew past Perryville 57-34
It was the fourth straight win for the Indians in the series and they have also five of the last six.
St. Vincent has been on a tear in the series, when they scored 72 points in 2022. It was the most points the Indians scored in any contest over the two decades of games.
It looked like it would be a close game between the St. Vincent and Perryville girls at halftime last season. However, that was until St. Vincent flipped the switch.
St. Vincent held Perryville to just seven second half points as they rolled to a 58-26 victory over the Pirates in 2023.
It was the first win for the Indians in the series since 2018 (four games).
St. Vincent boys come into the game this Saturday with an 8-7 record, while Perryville is 2-14.
The St. Vincent girls come in with an 8-7 record, which is similar to their male counterparts. However, the Indians have won their last three games. The young Perryville girls have surprised most everyone and come into their contest with the Indians at 10-5. The lineup, which consists of mainly freshmen and sophomores has won seven of their last nine games.
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 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 February 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.
Perryville still leads the overall series 15-9 in the boys series and 17-7 in the girls series between the varsity squads.
