Earl Strickland has defeated Keith McCready to repeat as champion at the Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour event at Classic Billiards.
In a match that kept the crowd engaged til the very end, Strickland climbed to an 8-5 lead but watched McCready claw back to tie the game at 8-8 with McCready breaking. McCready made a ball on his final break and stopped the cue ball in the center of the wide open table but watched in horror as the 3-ball came one rail to knock the cue ball into the side pocket and hand the final game to Strickland for the tournament win.
Strickland pocketed $2500 for the win, while McCready took home $1800 for second place. Alex Pagulayan and Santos Sambajon filled out the top four positions.
Complete brackets are available online as well as pictures from the event.
The Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour will be at Ultimate Billiards Club in Berlin, CT next week for a $3000 added event.
Photo courtesy of Diana Hoppe - Pool Pics by Hoppe
Complete Payouts:
1st Earl Strickland $2500
2nd Keith McCready $1800
3rd Alex Pagulayan $1300
4th Santos Sambajon $1000
5th/6th Danny Hewitt, Ian Costello $750
7th/8th Mark Ford, Mike Zuglan $500
9th/12th Charlie Williams, Evgeny Stalev, Phil Sherman, Raphael Saldana $300
13th/16th Ron Costanzio, Ryan McCreesh, Hong Vongxay, Jeff White $150
