Decatur, Local Teams in Governor’s Cup

BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s boys’ varsity basketball team, along with several other teams from the Bayside Conference, will compete next week in the 2nd Annual Governor’s Cup Holiday Basketball Tournament featuring the top teams from Maryland against some of Delaware’s best.

For years, the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury has played host to holiday basketball tournament featuring some of the best prep teams from around the region between Christmas and New Year’s. Last year, for the first time, the tournament was renamed the Governor’s Cup after Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley issued a challenge to Delaware Gov. Jack Markel with a Maryland Smith Island cake on the line against a Delaware peach pie for the winner.

Next week, the second annual Governor’s Challeng Cup will be held, although it has been renamed the M&T Bank Cup, and will once again feature some of the top teams from Maryland’s Eastern Shore against a strong field of teams from Delaware. Decatur will be among the Bayside Conference teams represented along with Parkside, Crisfield, Washington, Queen Anne’s, North Caroline and Kent Island.

Delaware teams in the field include Cape Henlopen, Indian River, Sussex Central, Sussex Tech, Woodbridge, Laurel, Milford, Seaford, Delmar, Delmarva Christian, Arcadia and Campus Community. Decatur will face Sussex Central next Tuesday, December 27 at 6:30 p.m. and Woodbridge on Friday, December 30 at 2 p.m.

The tournament has expanded this year to include two new cups including the Dr. Pepper 10 Cup featuring ten of the top teams in Maryland from both sides of the Chesapeake. Representing the Eastern Shore in the Dr. Pepper 10 Cup will be Wicomico, Bennett and Easton.

Finally, the tournament will feature an elite division called the East Coast Challenge with four of the region’s top high school teams including Dunbar and St. John’s from Maryland, Norfolk Christian from Virginia and the Red Lion Christian Academy from Delaware. Games will be played practically around the clock on two courts at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center from next Tuesday, December 27 to Friday, December 30.