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Titans gain slot in Tuesday billiards finals
The 9 Eleven Titans celebrate their upset win over the higher-seeded Tasha’s Str8 Black Ball in last week’s playoff matches in the Saipan Billiards Association Budweiser Open 8-Ball Tuesday League. (Contributed Photo)
The 9 Eleven Titans dispatched the higher-seeded Tasha’s Str8 Black Ball to crash the highly-anticipated battle between the division’s Top 2 teams in last week’s knockout playoffs round of the Saipan Billiards Association Budweiser Open 8-Ball Tuesday League.
The Titans matched the Str8 Black Ball rack after rack in squeezing out a 9-8 triumph in their semifinals match, while the Destroyers showed nerves of steel in scoring the same decision against the hard fighting 9 Eleven Docomo Hustlers.
The Black Ball entered the playoffs as the second-best team after finishing the elimination round with a 153-107 record, but they could not escape the upset axe last week. 9 Eleven Titans’ Ray Matsunaga, Pat Cepeda, Joe Villagomez, Simon Kapileo, and Shane Quitugua played like there’s no tomorrow in beating every Black Ball cue artist matched against them both in the Singles and Partner’s 8-Ball. Cepeda and Quitugua, with the score tied at 8-8, bested the Black Ball’s duo of Mervin Sahagun and Rey Hermogenes to book a finals berth.
It was the same story in the Destroyers-Hustlers game with the semis match decided in the final Partner’s 8-Ball event.
Gian Flores and Nolan Cultura showed that they were the steadier pair when they defeated Erwin Gomez and Cobra Mariano and put the Destroyers to a finals showdown against the Titans.
In the Thursday League, the 9 Eleven MJD Warriors earned the top ranking despite suffering a 7-6 loss against the Titans II. They finished with a 169-104 record and will face Tasha’s Wild Bills (147-126) on Thursday with a finals seat at stake.
The Chow Time 8-Black Ball came in second place (167-106) in the standings after dropping a 5-8 decision against the 9 Eleven Jam Shooters and will take on the Titans II (155-118) also on Sept. 21.
The Wild Bills squeaked past Tasha’s Extreme, 7-6, while Sands Team SCS dumped the Chow Time Blue Haus Homeboyz, 10-3, in the other matches of the last day of the elimination round.
