Danny Hewitt has defeated Jim Rempe to win the Ten Ball Challenge at Trump Marina in Atlantic City.
Hewitt, from Montreal Quebec, turned in a second place finish at the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour stop at Cap's Cue Club in Syracuse, NY last weekend where he lost his first match of the tournament and came back through the one-loss side only to lose to Alex Pagulayan in the finals. Hewitt questioned whether he would even go to Atlantic City for the ten-ball event until Pagulayan convinced him to make the trip.
That decision may not have looked like a good one on Tuesday when the Ten Ball event got under, as Hewitt was one of the few people who did get an opening round bye and lost his first round match to countryman Claude Bernatchez 10-5. From there, Hewitt then put on a performance reminiscent of Corey Deuel's trip through the one-loss side two year ago at the BCA event in Vegas.
Hewitt defeated Robert Clinton on the one loss side, followed by wins over Timmy Hall, Carmen Lombardo, Luc Salvas, Jason Krisle, Warren Kiamco, James Conn and Dee Adkins before he faced Alex Pagulayan in a rematch of their Joss Tour final match last weekend. Last weekend, it was Pagulayan who won 9-7, but this weekend belonged to Hewitt as he scored a 10-9 victory. As if that match wasn't enough to get the heart going, Hewitt followed that up with a 10-9 victory over Rafael Martinez. His next match against Francisco Bustamante was a surprising 10-5 victory, but after that he again went to hill-hill before beating Ronnie Alcano 10-9.
This set up the final match with Jim Rempe. Rempe had been playing great 10-ball all weekend, scoring wins over Sandor Tot, Mike Davis, Pagulayan, Earl Strickland and Ronnie Alcano for the hot-seat.
The final match was close the entire way. The match went back and forth and both players were tied at 7 each, 8 each and again at 9-9 when Hewitt prepared to break for the deciding game.
Hewitt put a little too much into the break and watched the cue ball fly off the table to give Rempe ball-in-hand to start the final rack. Hewitt slumped into his chair as his hopes of getting back to the table looked slim with the table open and Rempe having ball-in-hand. Rempe drew back too far for shape on the three ball though, and was forced to play safe. Hewitt used the new push-out rule in affect for this event and pushed out to a tough shot. By the new rule, it was then up to Rempe to decide whether he wanted the shot or whether to give it back to Hewitt. Whichever player took the shot had to pocket a ball or it was ball-in-hand for his opponent.
After taking a break, Rempe came back and gave the shot to Hewitt to try. Hewitt missed the ball and again gave Rempe ball-in-hand. Rempe again came up funny on a ball. This time, hooking himself on the seven-ball. Rempe kicked and hit the ball but left it straight in for Hewitt who ran out the last four balls for the victory.
Hewitt collected $20,000 for the win, while Rempe settled for $14,000 in second place money. Ronnie Alcano and Francisco Bustamante filled out the top four spots.
Complete brackets are online and we have an online photo gallery with candid shots from all week in Atlantic City.
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe.
