Second Straight Win for Lapena

by InsidePOOL Staff

On April 3, Al Lapena won the NYC Tour's finale, and o­n April 10, he repeated his performance, this time o­n the Hampton Ridge 9-Ball Tour.  The event, held at Primetime Billiards in South Amboy, NJ, drew 28 players, including UPA pro Danny Basavich and WPBA star Tiffany Nelson.

Even with such a star-studded field, Lapena was still able to plow through, capturing wins over Dan Doc Cee, Wali Muhammad, Mike Delvecchio, and Kim Shaw.  o­n the bottom of the winners' bracket was "Kid Delicious," who took out Ryan Duttkin, Lee Holt, and Joseph Testa to reach the hot seat match against Lapena. 

Right from the gate, Lapena was all over the table, running out to the hill at 6-0, but Basavich rallied with four straight wins.  In the eleventh rack, though, Lapena closed out the match to reach the finals.

In the o­ne-loss side, it was Holt that was tearing up the field.  After falling to Basavich in the second round, Holt ousted Mario Sahatjian, Nelson, Joe Scott, Gerard Soriano, Kim Shaw, and Joe Frady to finally emerge into the semifinals, where he had another chance against Basavich.  The semifinal match played out tight, as Holt and Basavich reached hill-hill.  In the decisive rack, Basavich made a mistake o­n the table, giving ball-in-hand and the game to Holt 7-6.

The final match between Lapena and Holt was exciting for everyone watching at Primetime Billiards.  After Lapena opened with a five-game run, Holt matched him to tie up the score.  The rest of the match went back and forth until it reached hill-hill.  In the final game, Lapena scratched o­n the 1 ball, but two shots later, Holt had to play safe.  Instead of countering with a safe of his own, Lapena jumped the cue ball into the 4, which comboed into the 5.  From there, Lapena was able to run out the rack to win his second tournament in a row 9-8.

Results:

1st Al Lapena
2nd Lee Holt
3rd Danny Basavich
4th Joe Frady
5th Kim Shaw, Joseph Testa
7th Pat McNally, Gerard Soriano

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