BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s boys’ varsity basketball team gained a split in the 3rd Annual Governor’s Cup Holiday Basketball Tournament last week, beating Virginia’s Arcadia, 55-43, in its first game before falling to Sussex Central, 53-35, in its finale.

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. Two years ago, 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.

Last week, the second annual Governor’s Challenge Cup featured some of the top teams from Maryland’s Eastern Shore against a strong field of teams from Delaware. Decatur was among the Bayside South Conference teams represented along with Parkside, Crisfield, Washington, Pocomoke, Snow Hill, Bennett and Wicomico and gained a split in its two contests, although only the second game, a 53-35 loss to Sussex Central, counted in the Governor’s Cup.

Delaware teams in the field included Cape Henlopen, Indian River, Sussex Central, Sussex Tech, Woodbridge, Laurel, Milford, Seaford, Delmar, Delmarva Christian, Arcadia and Campus Community. The tournament expanded last 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. Finally, the tournament will featured an elite division called the East Coast Challenge with four of the region’s top high school teams. The tournament got started last Wednesday and ran all weekend through the final games tomorrow at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center.