A field of 70 players took part in the South East Open 9-Ball Tour Season Finale at Mr Cues II in Atlanta, Ga last weekend.
Play on saturday went late into the night, but the players were back at it first thing Sunday morning to battle it out for the $2000 first prize. As the dust cleared Sunday night, it was BJ Ussery emerging in the hot-seat after an 11-5 win over Stoney Stone.
Stone would have to beat Bruce Berrong on the one-loss side to earn the rematch with Ussery in the finals. Beating Berrong was something that only Ussery had been able to do so far in the event and it remained something that Stone could not accomplish in this event as Berrong handed Stone the loss and relegated him to third place.
This set up the finals between Ussery and Berrong. Berrong had made it through all of his matches on Saturday undefeated, but lost to Ussery in his first match Sunday morning. After five straight wins on the left side of the board, Berrong got his chance to avenge that early loss. The second chance against Ussery was all Berrong needed as he earned a hard fought 13-10 victory in the finals.
Berrong pocketed $2000 for first, while Ussery settled for $1000 in second place prize money. Stone and Tony Crosby filled out the top four spots.
Although the SE Open Tour season is complete, there is no rest for tournament director Tommy Kennedy. The new season begins on March 20th-21st at Pockets in Dothan, Alabama. Look for more dates to be announced next week.
Complete Payouts:
1st Bruce Berrong $2000
2nd BJ Ussery $1000
3rd Stoney Stone $600
4th Tony Crosby $500
5th/6th Chris Bishop, Robbie Daniel $300
7th/8th Mike Staubes, Duane Davis $200
9th/12th Bill Ferguson, Chris Hightower, Jessie Middlebrooks, Brian White $175
13th/16th Todd Drake, Nomar Paula, Tommy Kennedy, Steve Moore $150
