Living up to all the hypes and expectations, perennial rivals Chiang Kai Shek College and St. Stephen’s High School had a gripping duel during game one of the best-of-three championship series for the 2009 Baden Powell Cup Basketball Tournament crown last February 7, Saturday.

CKSC and SSHS are meeting head-on in the tournament finals for the third straight year, with the former emerging triumphant in the previous two duels.

Playing at their home court, the Stephenians took command early in the game and surged ahead with a 10-3 lead as the CKSC Blazing Scout Dragons seemed lost amidst the big crowd at the SSHS Gymnasium. The hosting team controlled the tempo of the first quarter and ended it with a five-point lead, 20-15.

The momentum, however, shifted to the visiting team during the second quarter as the Blazing Scout Dragons scorched hot as they doubled their point production and limited their opponents to merely 13 points. The first half ended with CKSC on top, 45-33.

Both teams made defensive adjustments on the third canto, resulting to a low scoring quarter completed with the Dragons still ahead, 55-42.

The Stephenians, through its prolific tandem of Jameson Chiu and Lester Jefferson Espejo, made repeated rallies on the last quarter but the CKSC Blazing Scout Dragons flexed just enough muscles to hold on and win the game, 66-59.

Supported by Accel Sports, Burlington Socks, New Maxima Tire, Steelhaus Marketing, DC-Trio, Sing Merchandising, and Lights and Lamps, the Blazing Scout Dragons tries to wrap up the series as the two teams collide again on Valentine’s Day, February 14

More popularly known as the BP Cup, the tournament is organized by the Filipino-Chinese Scout Club, with the Rotary Club of Bagumbayan Manila, Pro-Ad Marketing Communications, Hammerhead Jeans and Shirts, E-Signal Marketing, Senator Richard F. Gordon, Jr., and Marikina Congressman Del R. de Guzman supporting this year’s tourney. The competition is named after Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden Powell, who founded the World Scouting movement in 1907.