BJ Ussery
He’d won it three years ago, and perhaps remembering his start in the 9th Annual NC State 9-Ball Championships, in which, for starters, he’d battled to double hill twice in a row, BJ Ussery, Jr. came to the 12th Annual NC State Open 9-Ball event and through six matches, didn’t let anybody even close to double hill. As he did three years ago, Ussery went undefeated this past weekend (Feb. 17-18) to claim the $1,500-added NC State 9-Ball Open, held under the auspices of the PremierBilliards.com’s TOP (The Open Player) Tour, that drew 46 entrants to Breaktime Billiards in Winston-Salem, NC.
Ussery’s memory may have made a shorter trip back to this past December, when he competed in the TOP Tour’s inaugural Open Championship in the same room, going undefeated until Josh Roberts took him down in the hot seat match. Undeterred, Ussery moved to the semifinals against junior competitor Joey Tate, whom he’d defeated in a winners’ side semifinal. Tate arrived at the semifinals having just defeated Mike Davis, Jr. (five-time winner of the NC State Open), double hill, in the quarterfinals. In one of those situations where a couple of mistakes can put a competitor behind in a match early, Tate got out ahead of Ussery 4-0 in those semifinals and quickly added the two more necessary for a shot at Roberts in the final. Tate took the opening set of the double-elimination final and by agreement with Roberts, split the top two cash prizes and was granted the official title for the event.
Ussery and Tate battled twice for this year’s NC State Open 9-Ball title; hot seat and finals. In the end, Ussery gave up, in total over two matches, as many racks as Tate had won in the first four games of their TOP Tour Championship semifinals.
Four of Ussery’s five opponents in the event were junior competitors. He opened with a 7-3 win over Brent Worth, 7-3 and got by Justin Mawyin 7-1, before taking a ‘junior’ break to send Kelly Farrar to the loss side 7-4. He drew his third junior competitor, Niko Konkel, in one of the winners’ side semifinals.
Ussery’s eventual fourth junior competitor, Tate, opened up with a shutout victory over Phil Stalls and then defeated Scott Roberts and Corey Sykes, both 7-4, before running into TOP Tour veteran Hank Powell, who challenged him in a double-hill match. Tate prevailed to run into former Q City 9-Ball Tour champion, Joshua Padron in the other winners’ side semifinal.
Ussery downed Konkel 7-3, as Tate was busy sending Padron to the loss side by the same score. Ussery gave up his first two of four racks to Tate and claimed the hot seat 7-2.
On the loss side, Konkel ran into a rematch against fellow junior competitor, Jas Makhani, whose father, Sundeep Makhani, owns Breaktime Billiards. Konkel had defeated Makhani in the second winners’ side round, after which, Makhani chalked up four loss-side wins, including the elimination of Jose Irizarry 6-4 and Hank Powell, double hill. Padron met up with Corey Sykes, who’d followed his second-round loss to Tate with four loss-side wins of his own, including the elimination of Thomas Sansone 6-4 and a shutout over Kelly Farrar.
Padron downed Sykes 6-2, as Makhani was giving up just a single rack to Konkel. Makhani defeated Padron 6-3 in the quarterfinals, before running into Tate, who defeated him 6-3 in the semifinals.
Given the recent history, the final could have gone two sets, but it didn’t. Ussery wasted as little time in the final as he had in battling for the hot seat. He gave up the other two racks to Tate and in the single set, claimed the 12th Annual NC State Open 9-Ball title 7-2.
TOP Tour director Herman Parker thanked Sundeep Makhani and his Breaktime Billiards’ staff for their hospitality, along with title sponsor PremierBilliards.com, BarPoolTables.net (Randy Tate), TKO Custom Cues and Realty One Group results (Kirk Overcash), Dirty South Grind Apparel (Angela Harlan-Parker), Federal Savings Bank (Alex Narod), CHC Underground (Chris Clary) and AZBilliards.
Parker will bring his PremierBilliards.com’s Q City 9-Ball Tour to The Clubhouse in Lynchburg, VA this weekend (Feb. 24-25) for a $500-added event.
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