After his 9-1 win over Jared Zimmerman, things were looking pretty good for Bucky Souvanthong and his chances to win his first Joss NE 9-Ball Tour win of year at Hippos House of Billiards in Utica, NY on April 8th and 9th. It turned out to not be as easy as he might have thought it would be though.
Zimmerman took the trip to the left side of the board, and found Spencer Auigbelle was on a roll. Auigbelle had lost his third round match to Ron Casanzio on Saturday, but he fought back with six straight wins on the one loss side. After a 9-4 win over Mark Creamer, Auigbelle downed John McConnell, Bruce Nagle, Casanzio and Joe Darigis in identical 9-5 matches. Auigbelle then eliminated Zimmerman 9-6 to earn his place in the finals against Souvanthong.
Auigbelle took early control of the first match in the double elimination finals, and scored a 9-4 win to push things to a second set. Souvanthong had to be wondering if he was fated to settle for his second straight second place finish, as he lost to Bruce Nagle in the finals of the tour's stop at King Smiley's Billiards back in March. The second set saw a different player in Souvanthong though, as he took control and cruised to a 9-3 win and his first win of the year.
The second chance tournament on Sunday saw Dwight Dixon bounce back from a final four loss to John McConnell to double dip Hendrik Drost in the finals. After defeating Dixon, McConnell lost to Drost for the hot-seat 3-1. Dixon them eliminated McConnell 3-0, followed up by 3-1 and 3-2 wins over Drost in the finals.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be back in action on April 29th - 30th at Union Station Billiards in Portland, ME for another $1500/$500 added event.
