Shane McMinn came back from a double hill loss in a winners' side semifinal against Jim Weast to double dip him in the finals and claim title to the December 14-15 stop on the Midwest 9-Ball Tour. In a concurrently-run event, Liz Lovely went undefeated to claim the Ladies title. The $1,500-added Open event drew 49 entrants to Magoo's Billiards in Tulsa, OK. The $350-added Ladies tournament drew 14 entrants.
As Weast was at work on McMinn in the one winners' side semifinal, John Gabriel took on Joey Gray in the other. Weast survived his double hill match against McMinn, and faced Gabriel, who'd sent Gray over 7-4. Weast defeated Gabriel 7-4 to claim the hot seat.
McMinn moved over to pick up Greg Hogue, who'd shut out Marlon Isbell and given up only a single rack to Jaron Williams. Gray picked up Joe Abrams, who'd gotten by Christian Young 5-2 and James Walden 5-3. A very familiar, Midwest 9-Ball battle was set up when McMinn downed Hogue 5-3 and Gray shut out Abrams.
In the quarterfinals that followed, McMinn gave up only a single rack to Gray, and then, gave up only two against Gabriel in the semifinals. McMinn took the opening set of the finals 7-4, and then punctuated his performance with a shutout over Weast in the second set.
Liz Lovely's victory in the Ladies event went through Brittany Colbert, whom she defeated 5-3 in the hot seat match. Colbert moved to the semifinals against Rhonda Pierce, who'd defeated Debi Aldredge 4-2 in the quarterfinals. Pierce denied Colbert a second shot at Lovely with a shutout in the semifinals. Lovely completed her undefeated run with a 5-1 victory in the finals.
