Brandon Shuff
For the second time in a row, Brandon Shuff met Shaun Wilkie in the finals of an Action Pool Tour event and won. In March, Wilkie was sent to the loss side in the opening round of play and worked his way back through nine matches on the loss side to face Shuff in the finals. Shuff's victory ended a six-event winning streak for Wilkie on the tour (four at the end of last season, two at the beginning of this current tour season). On the weekend of April 4-5, at an event hosted by Breakers Sky Lounge in Herndon, VA, which drew 61 entrants, Shuff once again took the undefeated route to the event title. Wilkie took the easier (shorter) undefeated route, as well this time, until the two met in the hot seat match and the finals.
Each of their winning percentages went down since the earlier meeting; Shuff winning 67% of his 97 games this time out (down from 72% of games won in March), Wilkie winning (just shy of) 60% of his 114 (down from 70% in March). Wilkie gave up over twice as many racks to opponents per match in this latest event - 2.5 per match to 5.75 - while Shuff's opponents improved from 2.8 racks per match to 4.57.
Shuff's trail went through Pooky Rasmeloungon, R.J. Carmona, Alex Travino, and Dominic Noe, before coming up against Paul Helms in one of the winners' side semifinals. Wilkie got by Troy Miller, Will Moon, Paul Oh and Matt Krah before facing Mike Davis in the other winners' side semifinal. Shuff downed Helms 9-3, while Wilkie made short 9-1 work of Davis. In their first of two, Shuff gained the hot seat over Wilkie 9-7.
Helms moved to the loss side and met up with Jimmy Varias, who was in the midst of an eight-match, loss-side winning streak (including a bye) that began when he'd been sent west in the opening round of play. Varias survived a double hill match against Tom Zippler and eliminated Matt Krah 7-3 to pick up Helms. Davis drew Carmona, who'd gotten by Steve Ball 7-5 and Noe 7-4.
Helms ended the Varias loss side streak, and Davis knocked Carmona out of action, both 7-4.
Davis then eliminated Helms 7-1 in the quarterfinals and got a second shot at Wilkie. Though he'd do a lot better than the earlier 7-1 match and force a 13th and deciding game, Davis fell a second time to Wilkie. Wilkie then fell a second time to Shuff, who completed his second straight, undefeated weekend on the Action Pool Tour 11-9.
Shuff, who missed the first two stops on the tour, has a long way to go to catch Wilkie in his perch at the top of the current APT rankings; a trip made even more difficult by Wilkie's runner up finish in the last two events. The tour's next stop (May 9-10 at Clubhouse Billiards in Lynchburg, VA) will mark the midway point of the 10-event schedule.
