l to r: Reymart Lim & Brandon Shuff
Though the 4th Annual NC State 9-Ball Championships, held under the auspices of the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour on the weekend of March 3-4, saw both of its former champions – Jeff Abernathy (2015) and Mike Davis (2016, 2017) – competing for the title, it was NC State’s current 10-Ball Champion, Reymart Lim, who came back from a defeat by Brandon Shuff, in a winners’ side semifinal, to down him in the finals and claim the title. Before it was done, Lim had also defeated Abernathy, and the Q City 9-Ball Tour’s 2017 Tour Champion, Joshua Padron. The $750-added event drew 50 entrants to Brass Tap Billiards in Raleigh, NC.
Lim advanced through the field to draw Shuff in a winners’ side semifinal, while Abernathy squared off against Chris Bruner in the other one. Shuff, a member of the USA Mosconi Cup team in 2012, and one of three USA players to finish among the top 10 in the 2016 US Open 9-Ball Championships (Shane Van Boening, who won it, and Jeremy Jones were the other two), defeated Lim 9-6 in their first meeting. He was joined in the hot seat match by Bruner, who’d sent Abernathy to the loss side 9-5. Shuff then claimed the hot seat in a double hill battle against Bruner and waited on Lim’s return.
Prior to Lim’s arrival on the loss side, defending champion Davis and Padron had made it to the event’s first money round, where they met. Padron ended Davis’ bid for a third straight title with a 7-5 win, and then eliminated teenager Peter Abatangelo, also 7-5, to draw Lim. Abernathy picked up long-time Carolinas competitor, Keith Bennett, who’d defeated Norris Brady 7-1 and survived a double hill fight against Barry Mashburn.
Lim downed Padron 7-1, and was joined in the quarterfinals by Abernathy, who’d eliminated Bennett 7-5. Abernathy, looking for his second straight appearance in the finals of this event, had his short, loss-side trip ended by Lim 7-2 in those quarterfinals.
Lim went on to down Bruner 7-4 in the semifinals. He completed his run with an 11-6 victory over Shuff in the finals and claimed the NC State 9-Ball title.
Tour directors Herman and Angela Parker thanked the ownership and staff at Brass Tap Billiards, as well as title sponsor Viking Cues, Delta 13 Racks, AZBilliards and Professor Q Ball. The next stop on the Viking Cues’ Q City 9-Ball Tour, scheduled for the weekend of March 10-11, will be a $500-added event, hosted by Cue Time Billiards in Spartanburg, SC.
