2013 Mayor’s Cup

By HOFHuddle on Tuesday • ( 0 )

Wednesday the 23rd annual Mayor’s Cup will kick off at Massillon High School. The four team tournament format is designed to showcase girls high school basketball in the Massillon area. Central Catholic looks to defend their championship from 2012 when they open at 6 o’clock against Northwest. The Indians come into the event with a losing record and a 3 game skid. Northwest will be looking to end that streak, as well as their four year Mayor Cup winless stretch. The Crusaders come in after a district final appearance last year. The Indians aren’t meeting expectations heading into the season returning 7 letterman. Since they are an Independent without a league to compete for the tournament format may spark something to get them going.

In the second game Perry takes on Massillon. The two have already met this season with Perry coming out on top. The Tigers graduated a big time scorer in Bri Peterson last year but have got plenty of points from Stenson and Canton South transfer Hunter Harris. Perry features probably the best post game of the four teams, while Massillon has the purest scorers in the tournament. Massillon had won 3 out of the last 4 championships before getting beat in the final last year.

Mayor’s Cup Semifinals
The first round gave much of the same for Northwest faithful, and some exciting optimism for the Perry program. Northwest dropped it’s tenth straight Mayor’s Cup game Wednesday after being beat by Central 50-29. After an opening three from Maddie Worden the Crusaders took charge and never looked back. The Crusaders ‘Army of Millers’ combined for 29 points while Hanna Risaliti scored 10. Northwest was paced by Worden who finished with 7. The Indians never found an answer to the Central pressure, that wasn’t always intense. They put lots of ball pressure on the Indians but Northwest couldn’t find an answer for the half court zone press either, committing several 10-second violations. The tension in Canal Fulton has to be getting very strong. Four year letter winner and last years leading scorer, Jordan Smith, was benched midway through the 3rd quarter and sat silently at the end of the bench the rest of the game, only to be joined by fellow seniors late in the game. This program needs an uplifting very soon!

The late game may have best been described as a coming out party. Kimmie Borck put on a show and we couldn’t stop watching! Most of the crowd cleared out after an 18-3 first quarter drumming of the Tigers, that was a mistake.

Since it was my first chance to see Perry I got to wondering where this great basketball player came from because I couldn’t remember her from last year. My jaw dropped when I found out she was a freshman!! Having such a superstar that’s got so much room to grow and get better is scary, but it can make you overlook how good Perry actually is. They only have one senior, and they look completely different than last year. They have a lot of young talent. They held a very good and athletic Massillon team to only 12 points in the 1st half, 22 through three quarters. Massillon was led by Stinson’s 11 and South transfer Hunter Harris’ 10. Borck led the Panthers with 22, scoring in every fashion, Sibley also contributed 10 off the bench. Since the game was never in doubt my interests turned to how good Kimmie Borck is going to be. Although it is a bit premature I couldn’t help but wonder what D1 school she’s going to play at and if she’s going to be the best girls basketball player to come through Stark County, and on the down side, would her future even include Perry or would a girls basketball power find a way to get her services? She is the real deal, anyone who has seen her understands that…

In the meantime Perry looks to win a record 8th Mayor’s Cup Championship Saturday against Central at 2:30, immediately after the consolation game between Northwest and Massillon.

Tonight Northwest and Perry compete in the JV Mayor’s Cup Championship after Central and Massillon play the consolation JV game at 6:00. JV tourney is at Perry High School.