The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour made their annual trek up north to Canada for a stop at Color Of Money Billiards in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The event drew a field of 49 players to take their shot at the $9800 in prize money at this $5000 added event.
The story of this event was the high level of talent displayed by the younger players. Eric Hildebrand and John Morra, two players who have been tearing up the Canadian 10K Tour recently, proved that their dominance of Canadian 9-ball is no fluke. 15 year old Morra, the reigning BCA Junior Nationals Champion, took the hot-seat at this event with a 9-7 win over Dan Kolacz.
On the one-loss side, Kolacz ran into 18 year Hildebrand who had lost to Kolacz 9-4 earlier in the day on Sunday. Hildebrand returned the favor, and eliminated Kolacz 9-4 to set up the final match between Morra and Hildebrand.
These two players were no strangers to each other's games, as they have recently faced off late in other Canadian events. Most of the time, Morra has held the upper hand over his older opponent. That was not the case this time, as Hildebrand took complete control of the first set and cruised to an early 8-2 lead. Morra fought back to 8-6 before Hildebrand ended the set 9-6. The second set was more of the same thing, as Hildebrand scored a 9-5 win for first place.
Hildebrand collected $2400 for first, while Morra took home $1700 for second. Kolacz and Bob Chaperon filled out the top four spots. The top four finishers, as well as Al Lougheed, Chris Jenkins, Adam Smith and Chris Fawcett, all qualified for the New Unified Tour System's Skins Game qualifier.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY on August 18th - 21st for their season finale. This event will be a $25,000 added event and will be limited to the first 128 paid players. Interested parties are urged to contact Mike Zuglan using our online player contact feature.
Complete Results:
1st Eric Hildebrand $2400
2nd John Morra $1700
3rd Dan Kolacz $1200
4th Bob Chaperon $900
5th/6th Al Lougheed, Chris Jenkins $700
7th/8th Adam Smith, Al Logan $500
9th/12th Jim Forsythe, Dan Basavich, Brad Grasso, Jason Holdaway $300
